Airwaves
- Wisia Wedzicha, Editor-in-chief
AIR POLLUTION AND COPD IN HONG KONG
Exacerbations of chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD) are a major healthcare burden and it is now recognised that air pollution has some effect on increasing the impact of the exacerbation. Ambient concentrations of air pollutants are high in Hong Kong and in this issue Ko and colleagues report on the temporal relationship between air pollutants and hospital admission in 15 major hospitals in Hong Kong between 2000 and 2004. Significant associations were found between hospital admissions for COPD and all five air pollutants monitored—SO2, NO2, ozone (O3), PM10 and PM2.5. In a multipollutant model, O3, SO2 and PM2.5 were significantly associated with …
