Study on the association between air pollution and mortality in-Istanbul, 2007e2012

We examined the associations between the daily variations of air pollutants and mortality in the population of _Istanbul, Turkey, using generalized linear models while controlling for time trends andmeteorological factors over a 6-year period (2007e2012) at different time lags (0e10 days). Effects of thepollutants (Relative Risk (RR) on current-day (lag 0) mortality to the first ten days (lag 10) were determined. Data on daily mortality, daily mean concentrations of air pollutants of PM10, SO2 and NO2 anddaily mean concentrations of temperature and humidity for _Istanbul were used in the study. We foundsignificant associations between air pollution and daily mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, and total non-accidental causes in _Istanbul. An increase of 10 mg/m3 in concentrations ofPM10, SO2 and NO2 over 10 days of lag corresponds to RR ¼ 1.0222 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) ¼ 0.9957e1.0494), RR ¼ 1.1639 (95% CI ¼ 1.0279e1.3177) and RR ¼ 1.0327 (95% CI ¼ 1.0105e1.0554) increase ofcardiovascular mortality, respectively. The associations for total non-accidental and respiratory mortalitywere also positive. Among the three air pollutants, SO2 was associated with the largest RR for deathsfrom cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and total mortality. In conclusion, our study showed thatshort-term exposure to air pollution was associated with increased cardiovascular, respiratory and totalnon-accidental mortality in the city during 2007e2012. These findings may have implications for localenvironmental and social policies