Relationship between ambient air pollution and daily mortality of SARS in Beijing

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between ambient air pollution and daily mortality of SARS in Beijing. METHODS: The approach of time-series Poisson regression was used to assess the relationship between daily SARS mortality, ambient air pollution, and other factors from April 25 to May 31, 2003 in Beijing. RESULTS: An increase of each 10 microg/m3 over a 5-day moving average of PM10, SO2 and NO2 corresponded to 1.06 (1.00-1.12), 0.74 (0.48-1.13) and 1.22 (1.01-1.48) relative risks (RRs) of daily SARS mortality, respectively. The relative risks (RRs) values depended largely on the selection of lag days. CONCLUSION: The daily mortality of SARS might be associated with certain air pollutants in Beijing.