- Full (HTML) - Full (PDF) - Related EHP Articles - PubMed:Related Articles - PubMed:Citation - Cited in PMC - Purchase This Issue

Annette Peters,¹ Jiri Skorkovsky,² Frantisek Kotesovec,³ Jaromir Brynda,² Claudia Spix,¹ H. Erich Wichmann,¹ and Joachim Heinrich¹

¹GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Germany
²Institute of Hygiene, Teplice, Czech Republic
³Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

Abstract

Increased mortality has been observed in association with elevated concentrations of air pollutants in European cities and in the United States. We reassessed the effects of particulate matter in Central Europe. Mortality and air pollution data were obtained for a highly polluted region of the Czech Republic and a rural region in Germany. Poisson regression analyses were conducted considering trend, season, meteorology, and influenza epidemics as confounders in both a parametric and a nonparametric approach. The Czech Republic had a 3.8% increase in mortality [95% confidence interval (CI) , 0.8-6.9%] in association with 100 µg/m³ total suspended particles (TSP) (lagged 2 days) for the time period 1982-1994. During the last 2 years of study, 68% of the TSP consisted of particulate matter 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM₁₀) . An increase of 100 µg/m³ TSP (lagged 1 day) was associated with a 9.5% increase in mortality (CI, 1.2-18.5%) and 100 µg/m³ PM₁₀ (lagged 1 day) showed a 9.8% increase in mortality (CI, 0.7-19.7%) . We found no evidence for an association between mortality and particulate matter in the rural area in Germany at the Czech border. Data from the coal basin in the Czech Republic suggested an increase in mortality associated with the concentration of particulate matter in a highly polluted setting in Central Europe that is consistent with the associations observed in other western European cities and in the United States. Key words: air pollution, epidemiology, mortality, particulate pollution, sulfur dioxide. Environ Health Perspect 108:283-287 (2000) . [Online 14 February 2000]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p283-287peters/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to A. Peters, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Postfach 1129, 85758 Neuherberg, Germany. Telephone: 49 89 3187 4566. Fax: 49 89 3187 3380. E-mail: peters@gsf.de

We thank the Institute of Health Statistics and the Hydrometeorological Institute (Prague, Czech Republic) , as well as the Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung and the Bayerisches Landesamt für Umweltschutz (Munich, Germany) for providing data. We thank K. Honig-Blum for the data management and H. Weißgerber for support and discussions during the project.

The study was funded by the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Landesentwicklung und Umweltfragen and the Fund for Regional Development of the European Union.

Received 18 May 1999 ; accepted 30 September 1999.