GEOG 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Confidence Interval, Bronchoconstriction, Soot

• School: McGill University
• Department: Geography
• Course: GEOG 221
• Professor: Ian Strachan

Document Summary

Readings: who fact sheet on air pollution and health (on my courses) Poor indoor air quality is much more likely to harm you than outdoor pollution. Vehicular traffic is a good proxy for exposure to no2. Particulate matter the big culprit in the epidemiological world in terms of effects. Epidemiology looks at the relationship between environmental factors and human disease. Measuring exposure is very difficult to do esp. for air pollution trying to pin things like mortality and exposure is really difficult. The chronic (lifetime) exposure is key but this is the area that has the most controversy. In order to determine causality: need to see that the cause preceded the effect, need to see biological plausibility: does it make biological sense that this exposure is linked to this outcome, need to see a dose-response effect. Air pollutants are continually being deposited into the respiratory system.