Summertime Ozone Sends the Elderly to the Emergency Room
This study examined daily emergency room visits for respiratory illnesses in 25 hospitals in Montreal, Quebec in relation to summertime air pollution.
Though the ozone levels never exceeded the 1-hour NAAQS of 120 ppb, statistically significant relationships were found between respiratory emergency room visits for patients over age 64, and both 1-hour and 8-hour maximum ozone levels measured the day before. “These findings confirm the impression that while air quality standards may protect the respiratory health of the general population, this is not the case for susceptible subgroups such as the elderly,” conclude the researchers.
Delfino, R.J., Murphy-Moulton, A.M., and Becklake, M.R. Emergency Room Visits for Respiratory Illnesses among the Elderly in Montreal: Association with Low Level Ozone Exposure. Environmental Research, Section A, Vol. 76, pp. 67-77, 1998. The National Library of Medicine [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi] publishes the abstract online.
