Development and Application of Spatially Disaggregated Exposure Series in Time-series Analyses of Air Pollution-related Health Effects in Chennai, India

Impacts of Climate Change on Public Health in India: Future Research Directions

“…One study that investigated the effects of air pollution on respiratory disease found that emergency department visits increased by approximately 20% because of high levels of pollutants in Delhi ( Pande et al 2002 ). In a second study based in Chennai, India, Ghosh et al (2010) concluded that short-term exposure to particulate matter ≤ 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM 10 ) resulted in an estimated risk ratio of 1.0044 (95% CI, 1.002–1.007) per a 10 μg/m 3 increase in daily average concentrations; this risk estimate is comparable to similar estimates from other countries. An important contribution of this study, relevant to other low- and middle-income countries, was the development of new methods to address specific limitations of routinely collected data such as missing measurements and small footprints of air pollution monitors, but the link to temperature remains to be explored.…”

“…In some cases, individual investigators have accessed government hospital data sets and have daily all-cause mortality, albeit over a limited geography. The same goes for air pollution data, such as data on particulate matter (PM), which have been accessed at certain locations of interest, such as Chennai ( Ghosh et al 2010 ). The use of exposure and emission models can help to fill in where air pollution data are missing; however, consistent monitoring of PM, ozone, and nitrogen oxides over a greater geographic area is needed.…”