Temperature Inversions, Meteorological Variables and Air Pollutants and Their Influence on Acute Respiratory Disease in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone, Jalisco, Mexico

Hermes U. Ramírez-Sánchez, Mario E. García-Guadalupe, Héctor H. Ulloa-Gódinez, Ángel R. Meulenert-Peña, Omar García-Concepción, Jaime Alcalá Gutierrez, Sarahi J. Lizarraga Brito

Department of Physics, Institute of Astronomy and Meteorology, University Center of Exact Sciences and Engineering (CUCEI), University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico..

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2013.48A1016                

Abstract

The presence of temperature inversions (TI), concentration of air pollutants (AP) and meteorological variables (MV) affect the welfare of the population, creating public health problems (acute respiratory diseases ARDs, among others). The Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone (GMZ) experiences high levels of air pollution, which associated with the presence of temperature inversions and meteorological variations is conducive to the incidence of ARDs in children. The aim of this work is to evaluate the TI, MV, AP and their influence on the ARDs in children under five years in the GMZ from 2003 to 2007. In this period, the moderate and strong TI are the most frequent presenting from November to May. The AP shows a variable behavior during the year and between years, with the highest concentration of particles less than 10 microns (PM₁₀), followed by ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_X), carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂), the most affected areas are the southeast of the GMZ. Annual arithmetic mean is 213,510 ± 41,209 ARDs consultations. The most important diseases are acute respiratory infections (98.0%), followed by pneumonia and bronchopneumonia (1.1%), asthma and status asthmaticus (0.5%) and streptococcal pharyngitis and tonsillitis (0.4%). Months with most inquiries were from October to March, mainly in the southeast, south and center of the city, coinciding with high levels of AP. Statistical analysis shows that the TI have significant correlation with ARDs in three years, temperature (Temp) in two, relative humidity (RH) in two, wind speed (WS) in three, wind direction (WD) in two, while that air pollutants NO_X and NO₂ showed significant correlation with ARDs throughout the period. CO and SO₂ showed significance in two years, while the PM₁₀ and O₃ in one.

Keywords

Temperature Inversions; Meteorological Variables; Air Pollutants; Acute Respiratory Diseases

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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