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Journal List > Environ Health Perspect > v.110(3); Mar 2002

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Environ Health Perspect. 2002 March; 110(3): 293–300.
PMCID: PMC1240770
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Research Article
Effect of motor vehicle emissions on respiratory health in an urban area.
David L Buckeridge, Richard Glazier, Bart J Harvey, Michael Escobar, Carl Amrhein, and John Frank
Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. david.buckeridge@stanford.edu
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Abstract
Motor vehicles emit particulate matter < 2.5 microm in diameter (PM(2.5)), and as a result, PM(2.5) concentrations tend to be elevated near busy streets. Studies of the relationship between motor vehicle emissions and respiratory health are generally limited by difficulties in exposure assessment. We developed a refined exposure model and implemented it using a geographic information system to estimate the average daily census enumeration area (EA) exposure to PM(2.5). Southeast Toronto, the study area, includes 334 EAs and covers 16 km(2) of urban area. We used hospital admission diagnostic codes from 1990 to 1992 to measure respiratory and genitourinary conditions. We assessed the effect of EA exposure on hospital admissions using a Poisson mixed-effects model and examined the spatial distributions of variables. Exposure to PM(2.5) has a significant effect on admission rates for a subset of respiratory diagnoses (asthma, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, upper respiratory tract infection), with a relative risk of 1.24 (95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.45) for a log(10) increase in exposure. We noted a weaker effect of exposure on hospitalization for all respiratory conditions, and no effect on hospitalization for nonrespiratory conditions.
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Selected References
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