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Ambient ozone and emergency department visits for skin conditions

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Abstract

Little is known regarding the epidemiology of acute skin/eye infection and inflammations and their link to ambient air pollution; however, skin/eye problems are among the most frequent health complaints seen by emergency physicians. The authors explored links between previous day exposures to ambient ozone and the daily visits to emergency departments (ED) for inflammation or infections in the outer layers of the skin or eyelid. The study was based on ED visits that took place in Edmonton, Canada, during the period of April 1992 to March 2002, where 1.4% of patients presented with these conditions. A case-crossover design was used to compute the odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) of a skin emergency when two exposure doses differed by a predefined unit (here, interquartile range of daily ozone concentration = 14 ppb). The most noticeable results for all patients were: skin rash/eruption, lag 0 days (OR = 1.17; 95%CI: 1.06, 1.30); dermatitis/eczema, lag 2 days (OR = 1.15; 95%CI: 1.06, 1.25); urticaria, lag 4 days (OR = 1.11; 95%CI: 1.03, 1.20); unspecified conjunctivitis, lag 5 days (OR = 1.11; 95%CI: 1.04, 1.18). As for male patients, the result was dermatitis/eczema, lag 2 days (OR = 1.15; 95%CI: 1.02, 1.30). As for female patients, the results were rash/eruption, lag 0 days (OR = 1.23; 95%CI: 1.08, 1.41); dermatitis/eczema, lag 2 days (OR = 1.16; 95%CI: 1.04, 1.30); urticaria, lag 4 days (OR = 1.19; 95%CI: 1.08, 1.31); and unspecified conjunctivitis, lag 7 days (OR = 1.20; 95%CI: 1.09, 1.32). Exposure to ambient ozone may emerge as a mediator of acute symptoms of diseases affecting the protective outer layers of the skin and eye conjunctiva.

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Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the support of Health Canada in funding data acquisition, and also Alberta Health Services (AHS)–Edmonton Zone, especially the efforts of Virginia Willis and Chris Huston in securing these data. The authors acknowledge Environment Canada for providing air pollution data from the National Air Pollution Surveillance network. Dr. Rowe’s research is supported by a Twenty-first Century Canada Research Chair grant from the Government of Canada (Ottawa, ON, Canada).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Studies Division, Health Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Mieczyslaw Szyszkowicz & Eugeniusz Porada

  2. Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Gordon Searles

  3. Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Brian H. Rowe

Authors
  1. Mieczyslaw Szyszkowicz
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  2. Eugeniusz Porada
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  3. Gordon Searles
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  4. Brian H. Rowe
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Correspondence to Mieczyslaw Szyszkowicz.

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Szyszkowicz, M., Porada, E., Searles, G. et al. Ambient ozone and emergency department visits for skin conditions. Air Qual Atmos Health 5, 303–309 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-010-0092-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-010-0092-5

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