Use of weather types to analyze the simultaneous abundance of ozone, PM2.5 and allergenic tree pollen: focusing on the potential impact on asthma hospitalization in Montreal, Canada

Abstract

Air pollution, aeroallergens, and weather conditions can worsen health symptoms such as asthma. While studying the impact of these factors, the use of weather types (WTs) rather than individual meteorological variables (such as temperature, relative humidity, wind, cloudiness, or precipitation) is more appropriate since it is holistic and integrative. Moreover, several studies have shown that the human body responds to WTs, rather than to individual meteorological variables. In this study, the use of Sheridan’s WTs is adopted and compared with a so-called “In-House” WTs. The analysis presented here deals with the links between asthma hospitalization and the synergy among air pollution, birch tree pollen and WTs. Knowing the daily WT in a region can provide valuable information for health planning and management of asthma hospitalization, emergency visits and sub-clinical symptoms in the population. This is because air pollution and birch pollen both occur within only a few specific WTs, such as the TROWAL (trough of warm air aloft) or tropical airmasses. These specific WTs need to be more scrutinized since, in Montreal, these are often linked with higher daily mean hospitalization. The findings of this study emphasize the importance of specific WTs in determining the maximum daily concentrations of ozone, fine particles, Betula pollen concentrations and health effects such as asthma hospitalization. Moreover, the use of data filters in the analysis (for temperature and total count of hospitalization) also reveals new insights in the complex nature of asthma disease and its relationship with environmental factors.