Direct Link Between Ground-Level Ozone And Higher Death Rates - NYT

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"Three teams of researchers conducting separate studies have concluded that high ozone pollution is linked to higher death rates.

The studies, which appear in the July issue of Epidemiology, "point to the urgent need to reduce public exposures to ambient ozone by all possible means," an accompanying editorial argues. The studies, by researchers from Yale, Harvard and New York University, among other places, drew their conclusions based on dozens of earlier studies that tried to find a link between mortality and daily ground-level ozone levels in cities around the world.

Two of the new studies came to a very similar finding. For every 10 parts per billion the daily ozone level goes up, they said, the death rate over the next three days goes up about 0.85 percent. One study reported finding "strong evidence of a short-term association between ozone and mortality, with larger effects for cardiovascular and respiratory mortality."

Older people were especially at risk, the researchers said. The biggest increase in mortality was seen in the summer. And cities that had more air-conditioning had fewer health problems."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/health/21envi.html?pagewanted=all