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An epidemiological surveillance system for the management of air pollution episodes : the ERPURS project
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Edité par CCSD -
International audience. Objectives: Recent epidemiologic studies suggest that current air pollution standards do not protect effectively the overall population's health. In order to help decision-making in the management of acute episodes of air pollution, ERPURS project tests the feasability of an epidemiological surveillance system.Methods: During 3 weeks in winter 1989, an air pollution episode was detected in the Paris region. A retrospective study was carried out to quantify the relationship between daily mean of sulfur dioxide (94.8 Êg/m3) and black smoke (51.7 Êg/m3) with subsequent home medical visits trough time series analysis and multiple linear regression.Results: preliminary results show a significant increase (16-18%) of home medical visits with a lag-time of 2 days for respiratory visits (r=0.30, p<0.05), 4 days for cardiovascular visits (r=0.30, p<0.05), and 5 days for upper respiratory tract infections (r=0.35, p<0.05).Discussion: Quantifying adverse health effects introduces a "health rational" in the decision-making process for risk management of acute air pollution episodes. It also may suggest a revision of WHO guidelines as our epidemiological surveillance system has detected air pollution effects on health at levels below the recommended standards.