PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Marcos Abdo Arbex AU - Silvia Leticia Santiago AU - Elisangela Providello Moysés AU - Luiz Alberto Pereira AU - Paulo Hilário Saldiva AU - Alfesio Luis Braga TI - Impact of urban air pollution on acute upper respiratory tract infections (AURTI) DP - 2011 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - p1048 VI - 38 IP - Suppl 55 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1048.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1048.full SO - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38 AB - In São Paulo city (11.2 million inhabitants) the main source of air pollution is its automotive fleet running on a gasoline-ethanol mixture.The aim of the study was to assess the effect of pollutants on AURTI. We obtained from 2001 to 2003 daily records: of attendances at São Paulo Hospital Emergency Unit (SPHEU) with ICD 10th J01-J06, of levels of PM10, NO2, SO2, CO, and O3, of temperature and humidity.GLM Poisson regression was adopted using daily number of AURTI visits as dependent variables. Long-term trend was controlled by a semi parametric function. Linear terms were used for temperature and humidity.Effects were presented as percentage increase and 95% CI in AURTI SPHEU visits due to interquartile range increases in air pollutants daily levels.During the study period, 177,325 visits occurred in the SPHEU and 137,530 (72%) were due to AURTI.In terms of age groups, emergency visits of children and younger than 13 years of age were the most frequent, followed by the groups 40 to 65 years, 30 to 39 years, older than 64 years and adolescents from 13 to 19 years old.PM10 presented effects at lag zero on daily visits due to AURTI and this pattern was observed for all age groups. Among those younger than 13 years of age this effect started at lag zero (2,1%; 95% CI 0,9 – 5,8) and remained almost four days. NO2, SO2, and O3 presented effects at lag zero.URTI cannot be considered severe health outcomes. However, it is one of the most frequent groups of respiratory diseases and affects different age groups. Despite of the well known susceptibility of the extreme age groups to air pollutants there are other age groups to present susceptibility enlarging the burden of air pollutants on health.