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Health Impacts:Respiratory Diseases
Health Information by Town
Given that the relationship between air pollution and respiratory diseases is easily understood the NSAIR project first looked at available health statistics on respiratory diseases.
Respiratory diseases include asthma, emphysema (also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), bronchitis, lung infections and pneumonia. Looking at all respiratory diseases together, the data shows that between 1990 and 2003, hospitalizations for all respiratory diseases increased for two of the three target communities: Beverly and Marblehead.
Figure 1: Graph created from MassCHIP (MA DPH) download of respiratory hospitalization; turned into rate using population statistics from the MA Institute of Social and Economic Research (MISER)
Hospitalizations for all respiratory diseases for Marblehead residents increased 25 percent, the largest percentage increase, although the actual number of cases was the smallest at 7 hospitalizations per 1000 residents. Beverly had 11 hospitalizations per 1000 residents, an increase in hospitalizations of 8 percent over this time period. The rate of hospitalization for Salem residents on this report dropped from 12 per 1000 residents to 11, representing a 10 percent decrease between 1990 and 2003.
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