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Mary Ellen Gordian,¹ Halûk Özkaynak,² Jianping Xue,² Stephen S. Morris,¹ and John D. Spengler²

¹Department of Health and Human Services, Municipality of Anchorage, Anchorage, AK 99519-6650 USA; ²Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115 USA

Abstract
This paper examines the associations between average daily particulate matter less than 10 m in diameter (PM₁₀) and temperature with daily outpatient visits for respiratory disease including asthma, bronchitis, and upper respiratory illness in Anchorage, Alaska, where there are few industrial sources of air pollution. In Anchorage, PM₁₀ is composed primarily of earth crustal material and volcanic ash. Carbon monoxide is measured only during the winter months. The number of outpatients visits for respiratory diagnoses during the period 1 May 1992 to 1 March 1994 were derived from medical insurance claims for state and municipal employees and their dependents covered by Aetna insurance. The data were filtered to reduce seasonal trends and serial autocorrelation and adjusted for day of the week. The results show that an increase of 10 g/m³ in PM₁₀ resulted in a 3-6% increase in visits for asthma and a 1-3% increase in visits for upper respiratory diseases. Winter CO concentrations were significantly associated with bronchitis and upper respiratory illness, but not with asthma. Winter CO was highly correlated with automobile exhaust emissions. These findings are consistent with the results of previous studies of particulate pollution in other urban areas and provide evidence that the coarse fraction of PM₁₀ may affect the health of working people. Key words: asthma, carbon monoxide, morbidity, outpatient visits, particulate pollution, PM₁₀. Environ Health Perspect 104:290-297 (1996)

Address correspondence to M. E. Gordian, PRO-West, 721 Sesame Street, Suite 1A, Anchorage, AK 99503 USA.

This work was supported by a grant from the U.S. EPA. We are grateful to Dwight Atkinson and Tracy Woodruff of the EPA for their interest in supporting this work, to Janet Kalev and Craig Botten at Aetna Insurance Co. for their help in getting the outpatient data, to Christopher Salerno, Larry Taylor, and Tom Wilson in the Air Quality Section Municipality of Anchorage for weather and air pollution data, and to Priscilla Lord and Joan Sullivan at Harvard School of Public Health for their help in preparing the manuscript.

Received 1 May 1995 ; accepted 24 November 1995.