1981 Volume 36 Issue 4 Pages 671-677
In order to clarify the relationship over time, between air pollution and chronic obstructive lung diseases in Yokkaichi, Japan, certificates of death from disease for the years 1963 to 1979 were studied.
The following results were obtained:
1) Several years after the frequency of chronic obstructive lung diseases had increased, the mortality rates from such diseases also began to rise.
2) With the reduction of pollution as a result of measures taken to control its sources, the mortality rate for asthma fell first, and then, those for chronic bronchitis and emphysema also fell to the levels observed in the control areas.
3) When levels of pollution in the polluted areas were highest, deaths from bronchial asthma occurred at increasingly younger ages.
