Correlation of Vehicular and Industrial Emissions with Pediatric and Adult Asthma, Bronchitis, and Lung Cancer in Four Regions in Texas (Poster)

Recent studies indicate that air toxics are linked with increased cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and ozone precursor (VOC) are constituents of air pollution some of which are known to aggravate asthma and exacerbate pulmonary lung function in children and adults with pre-existing diseases. However, there is limited information concerning the correlation of the synergistic effect of ambient air industrial and vehicular emissions with associated lung diseases.

We aimed to investigate the correlation between extramural ambient air criteria pollutant levels with incidence and prevalence of lung disease for children and adults residing in four Texas regions (1, 4, 10 and 12) exposed to elevated toxic emissions. We used a SAS Pearson model to estimate the correlation of ambient air CO, SOx, NOx, VOC, PM2.5 and PM10 emissions with estimated incidence of lung cancer and prevalence of pediatric and adult asthma and chronic bronchitis in four Texas regions with the highest annual point source emissions from industry and vehicles in 2007-2008. We analyzed ambient air toxic measurements raw data collected by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Environmental Protection Agency. Annual industrial and vehicular emissions of NOx, PM2.5, PM10, SOx and VOC show positive correlation with pediatric asthma compared to anti-correlation with adult asthma, bronchitis, and lung cancer. Results suggest that high ambient air toxic pollution is correlated with asthma prevalence of children residing in Texas regions exposed to the highest levels of industrial emissions.