Article: Atmospheric pollution and mortality. A comparative study between two Latin American cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Santiago (Chile) Journal: International Journal of Environment and Health (IJENVH) 2013 Vol.6 No.4 pp.363 - 380 Abstract: This work aims to deepen recent studies on the impact of air pollution on human health in Latin American cities. A time series study has been performed comparing the mortality attributable to atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in Santiago (Chile) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). Pollution, meteorological and mortality data have been integrated in a general additive model (GAM) to establish the correlation between pollutant concentration levels and daily death counts. The analysis includes other variables such as gender, age and causes of death for each city with the result that both cities show increased deaths that can be attributed to an increase in CO and NOx levels. The impact is higher for Santiago's populations, for all the studied groups. This may be related to previous exposure to high pollution levels or to the co-presence of other pollutants not accounted for in this study. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Atmospheric pollution and mortality. A comparative study between two Latin American cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Santiago (Chile)

Authors: Rosana Abrutzky; Sergio Ibarra; Patricia Matus; Patricia Romero-Lankao; Victoria Pereyra; Laura Dawidowski

Addresses: Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Venezuela 2474, Buenos Aires City, C1096ABR, Argentina ' Laboratorio de modelación e inventario de emisiones, Centro Nacional del Medio Ambiente, Larrain 9975, La Reina, Santiago, Chile ' Faculty of Medicine, University of Los Andes, Mons. Álvaro del Portillo 12.455, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile ' National Center for Atmospheric Research, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, 483 UCB, Boulder CO 80309-0483, USA ' Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, 25 de Mayo y Francia, CP 1650. San Martín, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina ' Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Avda. General Paz 1499, San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract: This work aims to deepen recent studies on the impact of air pollution on human health in Latin American cities. A time series study has been performed comparing the mortality attributable to atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) in Santiago (Chile) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). Pollution, meteorological and mortality data have been integrated in a general additive model (GAM) to establish the correlation between pollutant concentration levels and daily death counts. The analysis includes other variables such as gender, age and causes of death for each city with the result that both cities show increased deaths that can be attributed to an increase in CO and NO_x levels. The impact is higher for Santiago's populations, for all the studied groups. This may be related to previous exposure to high pollution levels or to the co-presence of other pollutants not accounted for in this study.

Keywords: air pollution; environmental health; mortality; epidemiology; Buenos Aires; Argentina; Santiago; Chile; carbon monoxide; nitrogen oxides; NOx; GAMs; general additive models; time series studies; air quality; gender; age.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENVH.2013.056977

International Journal of Environment and Health, 2013 Vol.6 No.4, pp.363 - 380

Published online: 04 Oct 2013 *

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Title: Atmospheric pollution and mortality. A comparative study between two Latin American cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Santiago (Chile)

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