Air pollution and hospital emergency room and admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in Doria Ana County, New Mexico

Introduction: Dona Ana County in New Mexico regularly experiences severe air pollution episodes associated with windblown dust and fires. Residents of Hispanic/Latino origin constitute the largest population group in the region. We investigated the associations of ambient particulate matter and ozone with hospital emergency room and admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular visits in adults. Methods: We used trajectories regression analysis to determine the local and regional components of particle mass and ozone. We applied Poisson generalized models to analyze hospital emergency room visits and admissions adjusted for pollutant levels, humidity, temperature and temporal and seasonal effects. Results: We found that the sources within 500 km of the study area accounted for most of particle mass and ozone concentrations. Sources in Southeast Texas, Baja California and Southwest US were the most important regional contributors. Increases of cardiovascular emergency room visits were estimated for PM10 (3.1% (95% CI: -0.5 to 6.8)) and PM10-2.5 (2.8% (95% Cl: -0.2 to 5.9)) for all adults during the warm period (April-September). When high PIVI10 ( > 150 mu g/m(3)) mass concentrations were excluded, strong effects for respiratory emergency room visits for both PK10 (32% (95% CI: 0.5-6.0)) and PM2.3 (5.2% (95% CI: -0.5 to 11.3)) were computed. Conclusions: Our analysis indicated effects of PMio, PM2.5 and O-3 on emergency room visits during the AprilSeptember period in a region impacted by windblown dust and wildfires. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.