Environmental Science and Pollution Research

, Volume 22, Issue 10, pp 7873–7881 | Cite as

Air pollution and unintentional injury deaths in South Korea

  • Kyoung Hwa Ha
  • Jaelim Cho
  • Seong-Kyung Cho
  • Changsoo Kim
  • Dong Chun Shin
Research Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the association between exposure to air pollution and unintentional injury deaths in South Korea. Data regarding all unintentional injury deaths (17,566) in seven metropolitan cities from 2002 to 2008 were collected. Using a time-stratified case-crossover study, conditional logistic regression and subgroup analyses were performed after stratification by age, gender, and season. To evaluate immediate and delayed effects of air pollutants, we used both single lag and distributed lag models. The risk was expressed as an odds ratio (OR) per one interquartile range (IQR) of each air pollutant. During the study period, the median (IQR) levels of air pollutants were 0.005 (0.004–0.007) ppm for sulfur dioxide (SO2), 0.02 (0.02–0.03) ppm for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), 0.03 (0.02–0.04) ppm for ozone (O3), 48.3 (34.9–67.0) μg/m3 for particulate matter ≤10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), and 0.36 (0.1–0.6) ppm for carbon monoxide (CO). All air pollutants, with the exception of PM10 and O3, were significantly associated with an increased risk of unintentional injury deaths; the maximum risk was observed in the distributed lag 1 model for SO2 (OR, 1.119; 95 % confidence interval, 1.022–1.226), NO2 (1.208; 1.043–1.400), and CO (1.012; 1.000–1.024). After stratification of the subjects by age, SO2, NO2, and CO were significantly associated with increased risk of unintentional injury deaths among subjects aged 60 years or older in the distributed lag 1 model, while O3 and PM10 were associated with increased risk among subjects aged 40 to 59 years. However, in subjects younger than 40 years of age, we found no significant associations for any of the air pollutants. Our study suggested evidence for a short-term association between air pollutants and unintentional injury deaths, even at low pollutants levels.

Keywords

Air pollution Carbon monoxide Nitrogen dioxide Ozone Particulate matter South Korea Sulfur dioxide Unintentional injury death 

Abbreviations

CI

Confidence interval

CO

Carbon monoxide

CNS

Central nervous system

IQR

Interquartile range

NO2

Nitrogen dioxide

O3

Ozone

OR

Odds ratio

PM

Particulate matter

PM10

Particulate matter with a diameter of 10 μm or less

ppm

Parts per million

SO2

Sulfur dioxide

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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Environment, the National Meteorological Office, and the National Statistical Office of the Republic of Korea for providing the data.

Authors’ contribution

C Kim and DC Shin participated in the design of the study. C Kim contributed to the data collection. SK Cho was involved in the data cleaning and KH Ha analyzed the data. KH Ha, J Cho, and C Kim wrote the manuscript. C Kim had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for their integrity and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kyoung Hwa Ha
    • 1
  • Jaelim Cho
    • 1
  • Seong-Kyung Cho
    • 1
  • Changsoo Kim
    • 1
  • Dong Chun Shin
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Preventive MedicineYonsei University College ofMedicineSeoulRepublic of Korea

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