Impact of exposure to ambient air pollutants on the admission rate of hospitals for asthma disease in Shiraz, southern Iran

Asthma is a common chronic respiratory disease in the world. Short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants is closely related to acute respiratory diseases and asthmatic symptoms. The purpose of this research was to estimate the correlation between exposure to three air pollutants (O-3, NO2, and SO2) and hospital admission because of asthmatic disease (HAAD) in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran. The data were collected from the two real-time monitoring stations located in this city. The acquired information was used for developing predictive models by the AirQ software. The findings of this study were reported for two age groups (<15 and 15-64 years old). The highest levels of O-3, NO2, and SO2 were obtained 187.33 mu g/m(3), 34.1 mu g/m(3), and 491.2 mu g/m(3) in 2016, respectively, and 227.75 mu g/m(3), 92.26 mu g/m(3), and 190.21 mu g/m(3), respectively, in 2017. Among the mentioned pollutants, the yearly average concentration of SO2 was 8.62 times more than the WHO guideline, during the studied times. The number of extra cases of HAAD for <15 years and 15-64 years caused by the air pollutants in Shiraz were estimated to be 273 and 36, respectively, in 2016, and 243 and 30 for 2017, respectively. The results of this work displayed that air pollutants have caused respiratory problems in Shiraz city. The AirQ model is a facile and potential tool for the prediction of asthma disease to reduce the health risk of atmospheric pollutants in the worldwide. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study focused on the impact of air pollutants on asthma and found that the concentration of SO2 exceeded the WHO guideline by 8.62 times, resulting in a significant number of additional HAAD cases caused by respiratory problems.