Air Pollution and Morbidity: A Further Analysis of the Los Angeles Student Nurses Data

Abstract
Hammer et al. analyzed daily diary reports of headache, eye irritation, cough, and chest discomfort in a study of Los Angeles student nurses, and found a statistically significant association between these symptoms and daily maximum one-hour oxldant concentrations at a nearby air quality monitor. Our analysis examines the student nurse data for the possible significance of other pollutants. We used new model specifications designed to account for the probabilistic nature of the outcome variables, and to allow for complications arising from the time series aspects of the data. We replicated the finding of a significant relationship between oxidants and coughing and eye irritation, and also found that: carbon monoxide was significantly related to headache symptoms; nitrogen dioxide was significantly related to eye irritation; and sulfur dioxide was significantly related to chest discomfort.