Correlations between PM 2.

5
concentrations and mortality
rates in Orange County, CA

Anna Natasha
34031609
 Introduction
Primary RQ: What are the correlations between PM 2.5
concentrations and mortality caused by respiratory and
circulatory diseases in Orange County, California?
 Stronger Correlation

 PM 2.5 trend

 Same trends as mentioned in other papers?

 Introduction
Ontario, Canada: 11% and 13% increased daily
hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiac diseases due
to PM 2.5

202 US Counties,1.49% increase in hospitalizations of

cardiovascular diseases per 10 g/m3 increase in same-
day admissions

In Australia and NZ, for people ages>65, increase in adult

cardiovascular hospital admissions with five categories of
cardiovascular diseases.
 Introduction
PM 2.5 (smaller than 2.5 micrometers), smaller in size than PM
10, and thus is a more serious health concern. Small enough to
get absorbed into the bloodstream.

Sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, ammonia, non-methane

VOCs

Lots of sources: anthropogenic, biogenic, chemical reactions in

the atmosphere.

Lifetime: days to weeks

Could travel 100 to 1000 km

 Methods
 PM 2.5 data (1999 to 2015): EPA Air Quality System (AQS)
Monitoring Station IDs 060590001, 060590007, and
060592022. The site names are Anaheim(1010 Harbor Blvd)
060590001, Mission Viejo (60592022), Anaheim(60590007).
Coordinates of EPA monitoring sites:
 Site ID 60590001 : 33.821353 N and 117.91427 W
 Site ID 60590007: 33.83062 N and 117.93845 W
 Site ID 60592022: 33.63003 N and 117.67593 W
 Circulatory and Respiratory Diseases data is from the
Compressed Mortality File produced by the National Center for
Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Center of Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
 Methods
 Converted daily PM 2.5 values to yearly.
 Normalized mortality rates to population of Orange County.
 ‘Detrend’ the results, upon realizing the peaks are different
 Used scipy.stats.linregress to calculate the slope, intercept,
correlation value, and p-value.
 Cartopy of Orange County
 A total of 3 graphs, 2 having a total of 5 subplots
Results
Results
Results
 Discussion and Conclusion
 The correlation values are -0.238 and 0.325.
 The p-values of both relationships are higher than the
alpha number of 0.05, which are 0.328 and 0.203. Not
statistically significant.
 Anthropogenic emissions are very variable
 Correlation from previous year to mortality
 Focused more on hospital admission rates
 Next steps: More dataset from previous years, or a
future projection based on different RCPs
Data:

https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/download-daily-data

https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D132

References:

 Franklin, M., A. Zeka, and J. Schwartz (2006), Association between PM2.5 and all-cause and specific-
cause mortality in 27 US communities, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental
Epidemiology, 17(3), 279–287, doi:10.1038/sj.jes.7500530.

 Kampa, M., and E. Castanas (2008), Human health effects of air pollution, Environmental
Pollution, 151(2), 362–367, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.06.012.

 Kim, K.-H., E. Kabir, and S. Kabir (2015), A review on the human health impact of airborne particulate
matter, Environment International, 74, 136–143, doi:10.1016/j.envint.2014.10.005.

 Maté, T., R. Guaita, M. Pichiule, C. Linares, and J. Díaz (2010), Short-term effect of fine particulate
matter (PM2.5) on daily mortality due to diseases of the circulatory system in Madrid (Spain), Science of
The Total Environment, 408(23), 5750–5757, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2010.07.083.

 Schwartz, J., F. Laden, and A. Zanobetti (2002), The concentration-response relation between PM(2.5)
and daily deaths., Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(10), 1025–1029, doi:10.1289/ehp.021101025.