• Tassia Soldi Tuan, Taís Siqueira Venâncio, and NascimentoLuiz Fernando CostaLFDepartment of Medicine, Universidade de Taubaté, Taubaté, São Paulo, Brazil..
• Department of Medicine, Universidade de Taubaté, Taubaté, São Paulo, Brazil.
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2015 Sep 1; 133 (5): 408413408-13.

Context And ObjectiveExposure to air pollutants is one of the factors responsible for hospitalizations due to pneumonia among children. This has considerable financial cost, along with social cost. A study to identify the role of this exposure in relation to hospital admissions due to pneumonia among children up to 10 years of age was conducted.Design And SettingEcological time series study using data from São José dos Campos, Brazil.MethodsDaily data on hospitalizations due to pneumonia and on the pollutants CO, O3, PM10 and SO2, temperature and humidity in São José dos Campos, in 2012, were analyzed. A generalized additive model of Poisson's regression was used. Relative risks for hospitalizations due to pneumonia, according to lags of 0-5 days, were estimated. The population-attributable fraction, number of avoidable hospitalizations and cost savings from avoidable hospitalizations were calculated.ResultsThere were 539 admissions. Exposure to CO and O3 was seen to be associated with hospitalizations, with risks of 1.10 and 1.15 on the third day after exposure to increased CO concentration of 200 ppb and ozone concentration of 20 µg/m3. Exposure to the pollutants of particulate matter and sulfur dioxide were not shown to be associated with hospitalizations. Decreases in CO and ozone concentrations could lead to 49 fewer hospitalizations and cost reductions of R$ 39,000.00.ConclusionExposure to certain air pollutants produces harmful effects on children's health, even in a medium-sized city. Public policies to reduce emissions of these pollutants need to be implemented.

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