TITLE:
Temperature Inversions, Meteorological Variables and Air Pollutants and Their Influence on Acute Respiratory Disease in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone, Jalisco, Mexico
AUTHORS:
Hermes U. Ramírez-Sánchez, Mario E. García-Guadalupe, Héctor H. Ulloa-Gódinez, Ángel R. Meulenert-Peña, Omar García-Concepción, Jaime Alcalá Gutierrez, Sarahi J. Lizarraga Brito
KEYWORDS:
Temperature Inversions; Meteorological Variables; Air Pollutants; Acute Respiratory Diseases
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.4 No.8A,
August
12,
2013
ABSTRACT: The presence of temperature inversions
(TI), concentration of air pollutants (AP) and meteorological variables (MV)
affect the welfare of the population, creating public health problems (acute
respiratory diseases ARDs, among others). The Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone
(GMZ) experiences high levels of air pollution, which associated with the presence
of temperature inversions and meteorological variations is conducive to the
incidence of ARDs in children. The aim of this work is to evaluate the TI, MV,
AP and their influence on the ARDs in children under five years in the GMZ from
2003 to 2007. In this period, the moderate and strong TI are the most frequent presenting from November to May. The AP shows a
variable behavior during the year and between years, with the highest
concentration of particles less than 10 microns (PM10), followed by
ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX),
carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), the most affected
areas are the southeast of the GMZ. Annual arithmetic mean is 213,510 ± 41,209 ARDs consultations. The most
important diseases are acute respiratory infections (98.0%), followed by
pneumonia and bronchopneumonia (1.1%), asthma and status asthmaticus (0.5%) and
streptococcal pharyngitis and tonsillitis (0.4%). Months with most inquiries
were from October to March, mainly in the southeast, south and center of the
city, coinciding
with high levels of AP. Statistical analysis shows that the TI have significant
correlation with ARDs in three years, temperature (Temp) in two, relative
humidity (RH) in two, wind speed (WS) in three, wind direction (WD) in two,
while that air pollutants NOX and NO2 showed significant
correlation with ARDs throughout the period. CO and SO2 showed
significance in two years, while the PM10 and O3 in one.