Urban ambient air pollution and substance use disorder

Abstract

AbstractThere is growing evidence that air pollutants might affect human behavior. This study assesses the associations between air pollution concentrations and emergency department (ED) visits for abuse of psychoactive substances. 28,745 such ED visits were identified and retrieved from a health database containing diagnosed visits from five hospitals in Edmonton (Canada) over 10 years. The ED visits were analyzed as daily counts. Conditional Poisson regression models were used to estimate the associations between the number of ED visits and concentration levels of gaseous air pollutants (carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3)) and particulate matters (PM2.5 and PM10, fine and coarse, respectively). Air pollutants and weather factors in the realized statistical models were lagged by the same number of days, from 0 to 5 days. The associations were estimated in the form of concentration-response functions. The results show relative risks and their 95% confidence intervals. Positive and statistically significant associations were obtained for CO for all patients (lags from 0 to 5), males (lags 1 and 3–5), and females (lag 4). For NO2, exposure lagged by 1 and 2 days has a positive statistically significant association for all and male patients. PM10 shows the same type of associations lagged by 2 and 3 days. PM2.5 (lag 2) is associated only in females. The results indicate that urban air pollution may have an impact on the abuse of psychoactive substances.