        |
Summary of Visit of Sabit Cakmak, PhD
Air Quality Indicators Associated with Health
(April 10-16, 2005)
Background
Within the framework of the Canada-Chile Agreement, in 2003 CONAMA committed
to developing air quality indicators associated with the public’s health
risk, identifying high-risk groups in the Santiago region through the association
of mortality variables, air quality indexes and meteorological factors.
CONAMA Metropolitana collected data on mortality, meteorology and atmospheric
pollutants during 2004. To continue with the process of generating these indicators,
a visit to Chile from Dr. Sabit Cakmak, representative of Health Canada, was
requested and took place on April 10-16, 2005.
The work to be done consists of three phases:
- Constructing databases for mortality, meteorological factors and air
quality indicators (particulate matter PM, nitrogen dioxide NO2, sulphur dioxide
SO2, carbon monoxide CO, and tropospheric ozone O3).
- Developing short-term indicators through analysis of health risks
associated with air quality in order to establish an environmental health prevention
system for Santiago residents.
- Developing long-term indicators through time series that allow the
impact of atmospheric concentrations on the health of Santiago residents to
be estimated, controlling for meteorological factors and other relevant factors.
Claudia Blanco, of CONAMA Metropolitana’s Atmospheric Pollution Reduction
Area, was responsible for organizing this visit. Attached are the activities
carried out during Dr. Cakmak’s visit.
Results of the Visit
During this visit, the following activities were carried out:
- Definition of criteria and methodologies for the integration of databases
in order to create air quality indicators associated with health.
- Construction of databases with the relevant variables for mortality, air
quality and meteorology to Dr. Cakmak. The information is expected on April
29 for subsequent validation by Health Canada.
- After validation of this information, the analysis that enables the statistically
relevant mortality variables regarding air quality and meteorology to be determined
will be performed.
|
