Efeitos adversos da poluição atmosférica em crianças e adolescentes devido a queimadas na Amazônia: uma abordagem de modelos mistos em estudos de painel

Abstract

This thesis investigates the acute effects of air pollution on peak expiratory flow (PEF) of schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 15, living in Brazilian Amazon municipalities. The first article evaluated the effects of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on PEF of 309 schoolchildren in the municipality of Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso (MT), during the dry season in 2006. Mixed effect models were estimated for the whole sample and stratified by the time of the day children attended school, and also by the presence of asthma symptoms. The second article describes the strategies used to determine the random error variance function of mixed effect models. The third one analyzes the data of the panel study with a sample of 234 schoolchildren carried out in Tangará da Serra, MT, during the dry season in 2008. Linear effects and the ones with distributed lag (PDLM) of inhalable particulate matter (PM10), PM2.5 and Black Carbon (BC) were assessed for the whole sample and stratified by age. In all three articles, the mixed effect models were adjusted by time trend, temperature, humidity and personal characteristics. The models also considered the adjustment of the residual autocorrelation and of the random error variance function. Regarding the exposures, its effects were evaluated in 5hs, 6hs, 12hs and 24hs, on the current day, with lags of 1 to 5 days and moving averages of 2 and 3 days. According to results in Alta Floresta, the models for all the children indicated reductions in the PEF varying from 0.26 l/min (CI95%: 0.49; 0.04) to 0.38 l/min (CI95%: 0.71; 0.04), for each increase of 10g/m3 on PM2.5. Significant effects of pollution were not observed in the group of asthmatic children. The 24-hour exposure presented significant effects in the group of students who attended school in the afternoon and in the group of non-asthmatic ones. The exposure from midnight to 5:30 A.M. was significant both to students who attended school in the morning and the ones who studied in the afternoon. In Tangará da Serra, the results showed significant reductions on the PEF for increases of 10 units of pollutants, mainly for lagged exposures of 3, 4 and 5 days. For PM10, the reductions varied from 0.15 (CI95%: 0.29; 0.01) to 0.25 l/min (CI95%: 0.40; 0.10). For PM2.5, the reductions ranged from 0.46 l/min (CI95%: 0.86 to 0.06) to 0.54 l/min (CI95%:0.95; 0.14). And for BC, the reduction was about 0.014 l/min. In relation to PDLM, more important effects were noticed in models based on the exposure of the current day until 5 past days. The global effect was significant only for PM10, with PEF reduction of 0.31 l/min (CI95%: 0.56; 0.05). This approach also indicated significant lagged effects for all pollutants. In the end, this study observed that the children between 6 and 8 years old were the most vulnerable to pollution effects. These findings in the thesis suggest that air pollution due to biomass burning is associated to PEF reduction in children and teenagers between the ages of 6 and 15, living in the Brazilian Amazon.