Short-Term Nitrogen Dioxide Exposure and Acute Respiratory Disease in Children

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Abstract
A CHESS data base from Chattanooga, Tennessee was thoroughly scrutinized and found to be of high enough quality to warrant epidemiological analysis. Using this data base, the relationship between NO2 ambient pollution levels and acute respiratory disease in children was examined. Although a statistically significant relationship was found, it was not monotonic. Indeed, over the range of pollution values experiences, more illness is associated with low pollution values than with high ones. A U-shaped relationship between illness and NO2 concentrations was found in several subpopulations in addition to the entire data set, although for some subpopulations no relationship was found. In contrast, higher ambient sulfate levels were found to have a positive effect on acute respiratory disease incidence in children over the entire period and for different subsamples, although this effect was not significant for either season analyzed separately.