Acute respiratory symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in other subjects living near a coal-fired plant.

Abstract

Daily symptom rates in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in other subjects with presumed high sensitivity to air pollution who lived near a coal-fired plant were compared with 24-hr ambient air concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, soot, and suspended particles as well as with emissions from the plant. The mean concentrations of each of the pollutants during the 4-month study period were below 30 micrograms/m3, and no single 24-hr concentration exceeded 100 micrograms/m3. There were no consistent associations between plant emissions and pollutant levels or between these two variables and daily symptom rates. The results indicate that the coal-fired plant was not of major importance for the occurrence of acute respiratory symptoms in the surrounding population.

• Authors: G Pershagen, Z Hrubec, U Lorich, P Rönnqvist
• Journal: Archives of environmental health (Arch Environ Health) 1984 Jan-Feb Vol. 39 Issue 1 Pg. 27-33 ISSN: 0003-9896 [Print] United States
• PMID: 6712282 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Air Pollutants, Occupational
• Coal
• Industrial Waste
• Sulfur Dioxide
• Nitrogen Dioxide

Topics

• Acute Disease
• Air Pollutants, Occupational (adverse effects, analysis)
• Coal (adverse effects, analysis)
• Female
• Humans
• Industrial Waste (adverse effects, analysis)
• Lung Diseases, Obstructive (epidemiology)
• Male
• Nitrogen Dioxide (analysis)
• Respiratory Tract Diseases (epidemiology, etiology)
• Sulfur Dioxide (analysis)
• Sweden