Impact of Temperature and Air Pollution on the Mortality of Children in Madrid

Learning Objectives Appraise the effects of individual air pollutants on mortality in children less than 10 years of age who lived in Madrid, Spain. Describe the effects of air temperature on child mortality and how pollutant levels vary seasonally. Identify biological mechanisms that may underlie the adverse effects of high pollutant levels and temperature extremes on child mortality. This work analyzes the impact of temperature and air pollution on infant mortality in Madrid. Daily values of mortality of children younger than 10 years, maximum and minimum temperatures, and air pollutants were considered for an 11-year period. In winter, mortality was mostly associated with very low temperatures and high total suspended particles (TSP) concentrations, whereas summer mortality depended crucially on the occurrence of high TSP and nitrogen oxides concentrations. In winter, the temperature effect increases dramatically for daily maximum temperature values lower than 6°C. This pattern is rather different from the one obtained for older age groups in the same location, which show the well-known V relationship between temperature and mortality. The association with TSP shows 2 linear branches without threshold and a strong increase in mortality for concentrations more than 100 μg/m3.