A Study on Acute Effects of Ambient Air Particles on Pulmonary Function of Schoolchildren in Ulsan

To evaluate the effect of air pollution on respiratory health in children, we conducted a longitudinal study in which children were asked to record their daily levels of peak expiratory flow rate using potable peak flow meter (mini-Wright) far 4 weeks. The relationship between daily PEFR and ambient air particle levels was analyzed using a mixed linear regression models including gender, age in you, weight, the presence of respiratory symptoms, and relative humidity as an extraneous variable. The daily mean concentrations of PM$\_$10/ and PM$\_$2.5/ over the study period were 64.9$\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥ and 46. l$\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥, respectively. The range of daily measured PEFR in this study was 170-481 l/min. Daily mean PEFR was regressed with the 24-hour. average PM$\_$10/ (or PM$\_$2.5/) levels, weather information such as air temperature and relative humidity, and individual characteristics including sex, weight, and respiratory symptoms. The analysis showed that the increase of air particle concentrations was negatively associated with the variability in PEFR. We estimated that the IQR increment of PM$\_$10/ or PM$\_$2.5/ were associated with 1.5 l/min (95% Confidence intervals -3.1, 0.1) and 0.8 l/min (95% Cl -1.8, 0.1) decline in PEFR. Even though this study shows negative findings on the relationship between respiratory function and air particles, it is worth noting that the findings must be interpreted cautiously because exposure measurement based on monitoring of ambient air likely results in misclassification of true exposure levels and this is the first Korean study that PM$\_$2.5/ measurement is applied as an index of air particle quality.