(60k) Air Pollution and Public Health in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

Air pollution around the world has been a major environmental health issue for people living in metropolitan areas. This health issue arises as a consequence or urban development and also with the atmospheric activities of the Sahara dust and Soufrière Hills volcano in the Caribbean. Epidemiologic studies suggesting airborne particulate matter as one of the principal causes of respiratory illnesses. Ambient air pollution and its health effects have not been studied in detail in Puerto Rico. It research conduct a study to evaluate whether there was an association between the air pollution, Total Suspended Particles PM10 (TSP/PM10) point sources and a risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in the Mayagüez municipally. The instrument used for this research was a High Volume Sampler (HVS) and the COPD data was provided by the ASES ?Administración de Seguro de Salud de Puerto Rico?. The high volume sampler was employed for twenty four hour periods from 2005 to 2007 years. The highest values of TSP were during February, March and April months of 2005 (µg/m3): 36.24, 44.48 and 37.55, respectively and February, September and November 2006 (µg/m3): 37.82, 34.67 and 33.39, respectively. There a correlation of the highest value of the TSP in the three years during February and March months. The preliminary results shows that there a predisposition when the TSP value increase the number of respiratory diseases hospitalization also increase, specially during the months of February and September. This results point out that a direct proportional correlation exits between the TSP values and the respiratory disease if the data of other Health Insurance Plans were included. Our research cans now awareness about the possible consequences of the air pollution and the effect in the public health. At the present day, no TSP measurements obtained exceed the limits impose by the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).