Author(s)

C. Linares, J. Díaz, R. García-Herrera, A. Tobías & A. Otero

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the urban air pollutants and noise levels on daily emergency hospital admissions of children less than ten years of age in Madrid. Poisson Regression Models were used to quantify the associations. Meteorological variables, influenza epidemics, pollen concentrations and trends and periodicities were used as controlling variables. The main results obtained were the detected relationship (p<0.05) between emergency hospital admissions due to organic causes and noise levels and PM10. Significant statistical associations were detected also for pollen concentrations, for cold temperature and for the difference in pressure. The results obtained suggest that particularly PM10 and noise levels are risk factors for the daily emergency hospital for organic causes. Keywords: air pollution, children’s health, emergency hospital admissions, noise levels, time series analysis. 1 Introduction A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that children’s susceptibility to environmental hazards is remarkably different to adults [1]. Children are more vulnerable than adults to environment factors because children are growing and their rapidly developing organ systems are particularly vulnerable, moreover children have a longer life expectancy than adults, giving long latency agents time to work alone or in combination [2]. Between the burdens of environmental risks that children are exposed to, outdoor air pollution is responsible about 6.4%

Keywords

air pollution, children’s health, emergency hospital admissions, noise levels, time series analysis.