Air pollution raises childhood asthma hospital admission count in HK

The University of Hong Kong announced Thursday a study result that asthma hospital admission counts of children increased with air pollutants levels.

The university's Faculty of Medicine carried out a study during 1997 and 2002 and found that childhood asthma hospital admission counts in Hong Kong increased with ambient levels of air pollutants.

Researchers obtained the daily hospital admission counts for children with asthma aged 18 or below from all public hospitals in the city, as well as data on daily mean concentrations of five air pollutants including particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometers (PM10) and less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3).

The result reveals that an increase of 5.64 percent of daily asthma admission count was attributed by an increase in NO2 level; and 3.76 percent by O3; 3.67 percent by PM10 and 3.24 percent by PM2.5.

It was published in the June issue of the international medical journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

The faculty suggested policy makers develop more stringent air quality objectives such as to introduce more environmental friendly vehicles.

Source: Xinhua