[Air pollution and cardiovascular disease in Trondheim].

BACKGROUND

There is some evidence linking air pollution to cardiovascular morbidity. Our aim was to examine whether there is a correlation between air pollution and cardiovascular morbidity in the city of Trondheim, Norway.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

We compared the mean daily number of admissions for cardiovascular disease to the St. Olav University hospital on days with relatively low and high levels of PM10 (1993-2001), PM2,5, NO, NO2, SO2, O3, toluene and paraxylene (1998-2001). A time series analysis was carried out to see how day-to-day variations in concentrations of air pollutants correlated with the number of hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease.

RESULTS

In the bivariate analysis, the mean daily number of hospitalizations was found to be significantly higher (p < 0.05) on days with NO and NO2 levels above the 80 th percentile (57.6 microg/m3 and 43.1 microg/m3, respectively) than on days with pollutant levels below the 20th percentile (11.3 microg/m3 and 16.9 microg/m3, respectively). Time series analysis did not show any statistically significant correlation between day-to-day variations in air pollution and hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease.

INTERPRETATION: The findings regarding NO2 and NO indicate that exposure to gases and/or ultra-small particles from diesel exhaust may influence cardiovascular morbidity.