Poluição atmosférica e seus efeitos na saúde da população: estudo de doenças respiratórias em municípios do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Air quality has been a subject of concern for mankind for centuries. Progress has made the human being more and more become an important agent in the atmospheric balance. Particulate materials are pollutants that can be emitted from a variety of natural or anthropogenic sources, and regardless of their size or chemical composition, can cause harm to human health and the environment. Epidemiological studies have emerged as a method of explaining environmental effects on the health of populations. The present work seeks to understand the relations of this atmospheric pollutant with other environmental variables, besides showing the strength of association of the different factors with the hospital admissions. For this study, atmospheric, air quality, census and hospital morbidity data were collected for respiratory diseases in eleven municipalities in Rio de Janeiro. Through statistical techniques of correlation and regression, it was possible to trace the forces of association and to prepare equations that sought to explain the changes of the different variables analyzed by the study. It was possible to conclude that for the cities studied the air temperature seems to be a greater reason for explaining hospital admissions for most of them. It was also concluded that in this study, there was a difficulty in trying to associate the effects of air pollution on the health of the population, since hospitalization data were compared with monthly data.