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Article
Short-term association between black carbon exposure and cardiovascular diseases in Pakistan’s largest megacity
Atmosphere
  • Daniel Malashock, George Washington University
  • Haider Khwaja, State University of New York
  • Zafar Fatmi, Aga Khan University
  • Azhar Siddique, Ministry of Public Health
  • Yi Lu, State University of New York
  • Shao Lin, State University of New York
  • David Carpenter, State University of New York
Publication Date
10-1-2018
Document Type
Article
Abstract

This study investigated the association between black carbon (BC) exposure and hospital admissions (HAs) and outpatient department/emergency room (OPD/ER) visits for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among residents of Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan. We measured daily concentrations of BC in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and collected records of HAs and OPD/ER visits for CVD from 2 major tertiary care hospitals serving Karachi for 6 weeks continuously during each quarter over 1 year (August 2008–August 2009). We subsequently analyzed daily counts of hospital and BC data over 0–3 lag days. Daily mean BC concentrations varied from 1 to 32 µg/m3 . Results suggest that BC concentrations are associated with CVD HAs and OPD/ER visits. However, associations were generally only observed when modeled with BC from Tibet Center, the commercial-residential site, as compared to Korangi, the industrial-residential site. Overall, low statistical significance suggests that while BC may be a valuable indicator for CVD health risks from combustion-derived particles, further evaluation of the constituents of PM2.5 and their relative contributions to CVD health impacts is necessary.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation Information
Daniel Malashock, Haider Khwaja, Zafar Fatmi, Azhar Siddique, et al.. "Short-term association between black carbon exposure and cardiovascular diseases in Pakistan’s largest megacity" Atmosphere Vol. 9 Iss. 420 (2018) p. 1 - 13
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/zafar_fatmi/90/