1984 Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 28-34
For 10, 843 population aged over than 40 years were dwelling in eight areas of Muroran City, Asahikawa City or Kamiiso Town in Hokkaido, the questionnairing about respiratory symptoms were conducted during 1970 and 1974.
In the present paper, we deal with the relationship between air pollution and prevalence of chronic bronchitis (CB) obtained from the survey.
Highly correlation between the symptom prevalence of CB and concentration of sulfur oxides measured by the lead dioxide (Pb02) method where used as the air pollution index in eight areas differed in the conditions of air pollution were recognized, and following regression line with two variableswere led: Y=3.87+4.21 X, where Y: the sex-, age-and smoking-adjusted prevalence rate of CB in percent, and X: the concentration of sulfur oxides measured by Pb02 method in mg S03/ 100 cm2/d.
The value from this fomula was excessively higher than that from Shimizu et al.'s obtained from their study in Osaka City in 1962-1963.
In at least three of seven areas being lower concentration of sulfur oxides than the levle recognized: clearly the health hazards from air pollution, the increase of the symptom prevalence of CB were noted.
Precise solution to the cause of higher prevalence in our survey could not be obtained, but it can be considered that the effects of the particular factors in the cold district (e.g. higher level of pollution in winter, cold climate, heating) appeared sensitively. Further study on the characteristic effects of air pollution to man in cold district is necessary.
