The impact of air pollution on the prevalence of obstructive lung disease at children

Nedžad Prazina

Pharmacy - Health faculty Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

E-mail: prazina@gmail.com; Phone: 0038761416222

Accepted 29 March, 2015

Abstract

In this study has been established a direct correlation between the prevalence of obstructive lung disease at children and air pollution at the example of the Bosnian's municipalities Livno and Kakanj. For this study we've used data from the Hospital's protocol book of patients who were applied to a doctor, and for the air quality data were taken from the municipality Kakanj. This research was conducted on a sample of 5971 patients who were applied for medical help with some of the observed obstructive pulmonary disease (OPB) in period of 15 years. In the municipality of Kakanj with heavily polluted air the number of sick children from bronchitis is about ten times higher than in the municipality of Livno, where the air is clean. The results clearly show a direct link between air pollution and the proportion of children falling ill from OPB however, do not allow the adoption of direct conclusions about the effects of the concentration of a particular pollutant to living organisms.

Keywords: Obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma, bronchitis, air pollution