I need statistics on the casualty rate (rate of death and/or injury)
assosciated with poor air quality and humans.  For instance, air
quality of xxx value over a duration of 1 (minute, hour, day, or
month) has a xx% casualty rate for humans.

I need to answer the question: given a duration of exposure, how many
humans out of 1000 will die/become ill?

This could be a broad question.  I forsee additional questions once
this one is answered/clarified with references.

Thanks!

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 28 Jun 2005 08:14 PDT

grasshop66-ga,

You've phrased your question in such a particular way that it's a bit
hard to get one's hands around it.

Air-pollution induced mortality is a well-studied phenomenon, and
usually produces statistics along these lines:


http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/SAR/sa.nsf/Attachments/Briefing11/$File/Briefing_Note_No_11.pdf
Health Impacts of Outdoor Air Pollution

"Every year an estimated 800,000 people die prematurely from illnesses
caused by outdoor air pollution worldwide..."


You might want to look over this paper in detail, as it provides a lot
of perspective about quantifying health impacts from air pollution.

Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?


pafalafa-ga

Hi Grasshop66,
I think there will be great difficulty in statistical association of
death or injury to poor air quality since the true cause of death or
injury for each individual is so much dependent on the person's
individual life style  - and not just if he or she smokes.

Some people have asthma, some don't.  The level may be higher in
Mexico City (noted for its smog), but how can a fair statistic be
calculated?

Just for an example of the vagaries on the subject:  At the beginning
of this year, new European Union levels of of micro dust in the
atmosphere became effective.  When they were exceeded, some
politicials in Germany immediately threw in a number of 25,000
person/year who would die from this, and the number was quickly
doubled by others, but the actual quality of the air had not changed,
only a new, lower limit become effective.  Previously, no one was
talking about the problem, though it had been existing  - and been
much worse earlier.

But maybe someone will now refute me.  This is just a free comment.
Myoarin