AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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Association of Ambient Fine Particulate Air Pollution (PM2.5) with Cardiopulmonary Morbidity in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
HAIDER KHWAJA, Shedrack R Nayebare, Omar S. Aburizaiza, Azhar Siddique, David Carpenter, Jahan Zeb, Abdullah J Aburizaiza, Cristian Pantea, Mirza M. Hussain, Wadsworth Center, University at Albany
Abstract Number: 545 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract The associations of exposure to air pollution and adverse human health effects have been demonstrated in many epidemiological studies. Though fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) is a major environmental problem of concern in Saudi Arabia, there has been no research on the health effects of exposure to PM2.5. We have investigated the cardiovascular (CVDs) and respiratory diseases (RDs) risk associated with daily exposure to PM2.5 and black carbon (BC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Daily PM2.5 sampling at 3 sites in Jeddah was carried out for 6 weeks per quarter during April 2013 – February 2014 with simultaneous collection of hospital data on cardiopulmonary morbidity. Annual mean for PM2.5 and BC was 41.7 and 2.1 µg/m3, respectively. The relative risk for cardiopulmonary morbidity was determined using a generalized linear time–series model. Risk for RDs was found to be highest at lags 0 – 1 and moving_average_2 – 3 (MA_2 – 3) for all patient categories. People below 30 years were disproportionately affected by RDs with age–group (0 – 14) years being the most vulnerable. RDs risk ranged from 3.3 – 17.8% for exposures to PM2.5, 15 – 72% with individual lags, and up to 150% with moving averages for exposures to BC. The risk for CVD was highest in age–groups above 30 years with high CVDs risk mostly observed at lags 2 – 6 and MA_2 – 7. CVDs risk ranged from 2.3 to 17.8% for exposures to PM2.5 and 18 – 58% for exposures to BC. In general, exposure to PM2.5 significantly increased cardiopulmonary morbidity risk across all age–groups. This highlights the severe damage on human health attributable to PM2.5 air pollution and suggests an urgent need for an abatement strategy for air pollution in Saudi Arabia.