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Air pollution and unintentional injury deaths in South Korea

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Abstract

This study aimed to assess the association between exposure to air pollution and unintentional injury deaths in South Korea. Data regarding all unintentional injury deaths (17,566) in seven metropolitan cities from 2002 to 2008 were collected. Using a time-stratified case-crossover study, conditional logistic regression and subgroup analyses were performed after stratification by age, gender, and season. To evaluate immediate and delayed effects of air pollutants, we used both single lag and distributed lag models. The risk was expressed as an odds ratio (OR) per one interquartile range (IQR) of each air pollutant. During the study period, the median (IQR) levels of air pollutants were 0.005 (0.004–0.007) ppm for sulfur dioxide (SO2), 0.02 (0.02–0.03) ppm for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), 0.03 (0.02–0.04) ppm for ozone (O3), 48.3 (34.9–67.0) μg/m3 for particulate matter ≤10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), and 0.36 (0.1–0.6) ppm for carbon monoxide (CO). All air pollutants, with the exception of PM10 and O3, were significantly associated with an increased risk of unintentional injury deaths; the maximum risk was observed in the distributed lag 1 model for SO2 (OR, 1.119; 95 % confidence interval, 1.022–1.226), NO2 (1.208; 1.043–1.400), and CO (1.012; 1.000–1.024). After stratification of the subjects by age, SO2, NO2, and CO were significantly associated with increased risk of unintentional injury deaths among subjects aged 60 years or older in the distributed lag 1 model, while O3 and PM10 were associated with increased risk among subjects aged 40 to 59 years. However, in subjects younger than 40 years of age, we found no significant associations for any of the air pollutants. Our study suggested evidence for a short-term association between air pollutants and unintentional injury deaths, even at low pollutants levels.

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Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

CO:

Carbon monoxide

CNS:

Central nervous system

IQR:

Interquartile range

NO2 :

Nitrogen dioxide

O3 :

Ozone

OR:

Odds ratio

PM:

Particulate matter

PM10 :

Particulate matter with a diameter of 10 μm or less

ppm:

Parts per million

SO2 :

Sulfur dioxide

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Environment, the National Meteorological Office, and the National Statistical Office of the Republic of Korea for providing the data.

Authors’ contribution

C Kim and DC Shin participated in the design of the study. C Kim contributed to the data collection. SK Cho was involved in the data cleaning and KH Ha analyzed the data. KH Ha, J Cho, and C Kim wrote the manuscript. C Kim had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for their integrity and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College ofMedicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kyoung Hwa Ha, Jaelim Cho, Seong-Kyung Cho, Changsoo Kim & Dong Chun Shin

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  1. Kyoung Hwa Ha
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  2. Jaelim Cho
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  3. Seong-Kyung Cho
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  4. Changsoo Kim
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  5. Dong Chun Shin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Changsoo Kim.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Ha, K.H., Cho, J., Cho, SK. et al. Air pollution and unintentional injury deaths in South Korea. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 7873–7881 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4101-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4101-y

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