Bad air quality speeds HK elderly to hospital-study
Source: Reuters
HONG KONG, March 6 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's air pollution is causing higher hospitalisation of elderly patients with chronic bronchitis, an academic study has found, and experts on Tuesday called for urgent improvements in the city's air quality. The study by the Chinese University in Hong Kong is the latest to link the city's worsening air quality to public health. Frequent bad-haze days now cloak views of Hong Kong's harbour, damaging public health. The study found a correlation between air pollution and hospital admissions for people over 70 years old suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) otherwise known as chronic bronchitis. For every 10 micrograms per cubic metre increase in polluting microscopic particulates known as PM 2.5, there was a 3.1 percent rise in the hospitalisation rate for elderly patients. Significant associations were also found between hospital admissions and other air pollutants like nitrogen dioxides, sulphur dioxide and especially ozone. "With better air quality, perhaps we can decrease the morbidity of the elderly population, or at least the morbidity of COPD patients," said Fanny Ko, a specialist in respiratory medicine at the Chinese University, who called for urgent government action to clean up the city's choked skies. While chronic bronchitis is caused mainly by smoking, its symptoms, including shortness of breath, can be exacerbated by poor air quality. COPD was Hong Kong's No. 5 cause of death in 2004, afflicting some 9 percent of the elderly population who averaged 23,845 hospital visits per year for the period 2000-04. Hong Kong's coal-fired power stations are blamed as the city's worst polluters, but increasing emissions also blow across the border from factories in southern China.
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