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Relationship between Summertime Ambient Ozone Levels and Emergency Department Visits for Asthma in Central New Jersey
Clifford P. Weisel, Ronald P. Cody, and Paul J. Lioy
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School - Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey
Abstract
The 5-year retrospective study of the association between temperature and emergency department (ED) visits for asthma with mean ambient ozone levels between 10:00 and 15:00 was conducted in central New Jersey during the summer months. An association was identified in each of the years (1986-1990). Between 8 and 34% of the total variance in ED visits for asthma was explained by the two environmental variables in the step-wise multiple regression analysis. ED visits occurred 28% more frequently when the mean ozone levels were >0.06 ppm than when they were <0.06 ppm. This result was statistically significant in a covariance analysis. An evaluation of the effects of ozone on asthmatics reported in the literature was completed to determine if, as proposed by Bates, the results from different types of studies were coherent among the health metrics. A consistency in the magnitude of reported effects and the time lag between exposure and response for four different health indices (symptom reports, decrements in expiratory flow, ED visits, and hospital admissions) was identified and indicates a coherence between ozone and respiratory response to ozone exposure. This supports a proposition that ozone adversely affects asthmatics at levels below the current U.S. standard.
-- Environ Health Perspect 103(Suppl 2):97-102 (1995)
This is an updated and expanded version of an article that was presented at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute Symposium on Ozone Air Quality and Health Effects held 27-29 May 1992 at Piscataway, New Jersey.
The authors thank the Emergency Medical Association for providing data on emergency department visits. The work was supported in part by contracts from EPA/OAQPS, NJDEPE Ozone Research Center grant C29279 and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center grant 05022.
Address correspondence to Dr. Clifford Weisel, EOHSI, 681 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1179. Telephone (908) 445-0154. Fax (908) 445-0116.
