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Effect of airborne Alternaria conidia, ozone exposure, PM10 and weather on emergency visits for asthma in school-age children in Kolkata city, India

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Abstract

Alternaria is one of the important allergenic fungal spores having special role in childhood asthma. Aerodynamic particle of <10 μm diameter (PM10) and ozone exacerbate respiratory conditions including asthma. There is no documentation determining the role of airborne concentration of Alternaria conidia, pollutants like PM10 and ozone and weather on school-age (5–18 years) children causing life-threatening episodes requiring emergency hospitalization for asthma in the megacity of Kolkata, Eastern India. We examined the relationship of daily hospitalization for asthma in school-age children and daily concentration of outdoor Alternaria conidia, ozone, PM10 and weather parameters in the atmosphere of Kolkata during 2010 using nonparametric generalized additive model (GAM). After a baseline survey (2008–2009), asthma hospitalization data for school-age children (based on case history and symptom-medication) were collected from two important city hospitals near study area in 2010. Daily Alternaria concentration was recorded using Burkard volumetric sampler. Its allergenic potential was confirmed by skin reactivity. Ozone and PM10 concentration data were collected from West Bengal Pollution Control Board. The daily time series analyses of data were performed using GAM. There are two peak seasons of asthma hospitalization, one in spring-early summer (end of March to mid April) and other in autumn (mid September–October). In GAM analyses, Alternaria conidia, ozone and PM10 were found to be significant both in spline and LOcal regrESSion smoothing method. Airborne Alternaria conidia, ozone and PM10 in the city of Kolkata are found to have effect on school-age children with asthma and appear responsible for severe attacks leading to hospitalization.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to University Grants Commission, New Delhi, for providing fund to first author; Mr. Chanchal Chakraborty, Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute for his kind assistance during collection of data. We are also thankful to the Director, Institute of Child Health (ICH), Kolkata; Dr. Indrani Roy and all the staff members of Allergy Department, ICH, Kolkata, for their kind help during skin reaction study on school-age children.

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Author notes

  1. Debajyoti Ghosh

    Present address: Division of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology, UC College of Medicine, 3255 Eden Avenue # 350, ML 0563, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA

  2. Jyotshna Mandal

    Present address: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Sree Chaitanya College, North 24 Parganas, Habra, West Bengal, 743268, India

    Pampa Chakraborty

  2. Department of Statistics, Visva-Bharati, Santinikatan, West Bengal, 731235, India

    Arindom Chakraborty

  3. Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, 93/1 Acharya P.C. Road, Kolkata, 700009, West Bengal, India

    Debajyoti Ghosh, Jyotshna Mandal & Swati Gupta Bhattacharya

  4. West Bengal Pollution Control Board, 10A, LA Block, Sector III, Salt Lake, Kolkata, 700098, West Bengal, India

    Shilpi Biswas & Ujjal Kumar Mukhopadhyay

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  1. Pampa Chakraborty
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Correspondence to Swati Gupta Bhattacharya.

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Pampa Chakraborty and Arindom Chakraborty have contributed equally to this work.

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Chakraborty, P., Chakraborty, A., Ghosh, D. et al. Effect of airborne Alternaria conidia, ozone exposure, PM10 and weather on emergency visits for asthma in school-age children in Kolkata city, India. Aerobiologia 30, 137–148 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-013-9312-4

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