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© 1996 Oxford University Press

research-article

Air Pollution and Mortality in East Berlin during the Winters of 1981–1989

SIBYLLE I RAHLENBECK* and HERMANN KAHL{dagger}

*Gondar College of Medical Sciences PO Box 196, Gondar, Ethiopia
{dagger}Senatsverwaltung fuer Stadtentwicklung und Umweltschutz Lentzeallee, Berlin, Germany

Rahtenbeck S I (Gondar College of Medical Sciences, PO Box 196, Gondar, Ethiopia), Kahl H. Air pollution and mortality in East Berlin during the winters of 1981–1989. International Journal of Epidemiology 1996; 25: 1220–1226.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between air pollution and mortality in East Berlin was examined for the winters of 1981–1989.

METHODS: Regression analysis included daily mean levels of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and suspended particulates (SP), and was controlled for temperature, humidity, week-day, month, and year. Moving averages of previous pollution were also used.

RESULTS: Each pollutant was a significant contributor to excess mortality. The strongest association was found for mortality lagged for 2 days, which depended significantly on the level of SP (ß for In SP = 0.876; P = 0 008) and SO2 (ß for In SO2 = 0.635; P = 0.012), when regressed separately. When omitting days with pollutant concentrations above 150 µg m–3, the pollutant-mortality relationship was linear, and a 100 µg m–3 increase was associated with a 6.1% (SP) and 4.5% (SO2) mortality increase 2 days later, when pollutants were considered separately; this was reduced to 4.6% (SP) and 2.8% (SO2) increase, when both were considered simultaneously.

CONCLUSIONS: The results show that short-term associations between air pollutants and mortality in East Berlin did exist during the winters 1981–1989. Since the coefficients for SP and SO2 dropped when controlling for the other pollutant species, a similar strength of association with mortality for both pollutant was found.

Keywords air pollutants, air pollution, mortality, particulates, sulphur dioxide

Revised 1 May 1996


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