Public transport strikes and their relationships with air pollution, mortality, and hospital admissions

There is limited suggestive evidence of relationships between public transport strikes and either increased air pollution or worse population health. In this study we aimed to assess whether public transport strikes were associated with increases in health events (overall, cardiovascular and respira...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Triguero Mas, Margarita, 1985-; Martínez Solanas, Èrica, 1982-; Barrera Gómez, Jose; Agis, David; Pérez, Noemí; Reche, Cristina; Alastuey, Andrés; Querol, Xavier; Pérez, Katherine; Basagaña Flores, Xavier
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Estado:Accepted version
Data de publicação:2020
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositório:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/47116
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/47116
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwz202
Nível de acesso:Acesso aberto
Palavra-chave:Transport públic
Aire -- Contaminació
Hospitals
Mortalitat
Descrição
Resumo:There is limited suggestive evidence of relationships between public transport strikes and either increased air pollution or worse population health. In this study we aimed to assess whether public transport strikes were associated with increases in health events (overall, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality, and cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations). We also explored whether air pollution mediated those associations. We used data from the city of Barcelona (Spain) for the period 2005-2016 on strikes, health events, and ambient air pollution (nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm, PM with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5μm, PM with an aerodynamic diameter ≤1μm, number of particles with a diameter greater than 5 nm per cm3 (particle number concentration), and black carbon). We used linear and quasi-Poisson regression models to explore the associations between air pollution and public transport strikes and between public transport strikes and health outcomes. We also investigated potential causal mediation by air pollution. Overall, this study suggested that public transport strikes are associated with increased overall mortality, respiratory mortality, and respiratory hospitalizations. However, our findings suggest that such increases are not mediated by the increase in air pollution. Our results indicate the need to further investigate these relationships and potential mechanisms.