Study on the association between air pollution and mortality in İstanbul, 2007–2012

Abstract

Abstract We examined the associations between the daily variations of air pollutants and mortality in the population of Istanbul, Turkey, using generalized linear models while controlling for time trends and meteorological factors over a 6-year period (2007–2012) at different time lags (0–10 days). Effects of the pollutants (Relative Risk (RR) on current-day (lag 0) mortality to the first ten days (lag 10) were determined. Data on daily mortality, daily mean concentrations of air pollutants of PM 10 , SO 2 and NO 2 and daily mean concentrations of temperature and humidity for Istanbul were used in the study. We found significant associations between air pollution and daily mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, and total non-accidental causes in Istanbul. An increase of 10 μg/m 3 in concentrations of PM 10 , SO 2 and NO 2 over 10 days of lag corresponds to RR = 1.0222 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.9957–1.0494), RR = 1.1639 (95% CI = 1.0279–1.3177) and RR = 1.0327 (95% CI = 1.0105–1.0554) increase of cardiovascular mortality, respectively. The associations for total non-accidental and respiratory mortality were also positive. Among the three air pollutants, SO 2 was associated with the largest RR for deaths from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and total mortality. In conclusion, our study showed that short-term exposure to air pollution was associated with increased cardiovascular, respiratory and total non-accidental mortality in the city during 2007–2012. These findings may have implications for local environmental and social policies.