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The Asian continental dust storms, originated mainly from the deserts bordering China and Mongolia, increasingly influenced the air quality of Taiwan between February and May in recent years. The concentrations of both coarse (PM10) and fine (PM2.5) particles increased in northern Taiwan during the dust storm periods. The potential health impact of the dust storms was worried by the people but not investigated before. The purpose of this study is to estimate adverse health effects of the Asian continental dust storms among susceptible Taipei residents in 2002.We investigated associations between dust storms and hemostatic factors for 14 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and 7 patients without CHD in Taipei during the dust storm period in 2002. Baseline measurements including hemostatic factors (tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), fibrinogen, Ddimer), and inflammatory markers (high sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) and interleukin-6) are measured before dust storms reach Taiwan. Air pollution data including PM10, PM2.5, O3; SO2, NO2, and CO are obtained from 5 monitoring stations in Taiwan. During the dust storm period from March to May in 2002, we recall all study subjects and perform hemostatic measurements on them.The concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and O3 increased significantly during the dust storm period. We find plasma tPA increase significantly in both groups. PAI-1 shows slightly but not significantly decrease in the CHD group. There is no significant change in inflammatory marker of interleukin-6. Compared with non-CHD group.Long-range transported pollution of Asian continental dust storm elevated environmental concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and O3 in Taipei. The elevated pollution results in increase in plasma tPA levels among susceptible patients in Taipei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Korean peninsula has a long history of spring time dust clouds blown by winds from the arid deserts of Mongolia and China, these are called Asian dust event. During the episode in 2002, daily average of PM10 in Seoul exceeded 600 mg/m3. Public concern about the possible adverse effects of these dust events has increased, because the dust arrives in Korea after having passed over heavily industrialized eastern China. This study was planned to investigate the association between the episode of the Asian dust and hospital admissions with respiratory and cardiovascular disease in Seoul, Korea. We constructed daily counts of all admissions for respiratory disease (ICD-10 codes J00-J99) and cardiovascular disease (ICD-10 codes I00-I99) in Seoul during the period of 2000 through 2002. A generalized linear model with a log-link and a Poisson distribution were used to examine the relation of Asian dust events to hospital admissions, adjusting for weather variables and time trends of admission counts. To accommodate delayed effects of Asian dust events, we fitted the model with 7-day moving averages of admission counts. The estimated relative risk of hospitalization for respiratory disease for the Asian dust events was 1.00 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.96-1.03) and the risk for cardiovascular disease was 0.99 (95% CI = 0.96-1.02). Our results indicate that the Asian dust events experienced in Seoul has little effect on the hospitalization for respiratory and cardiovascular disease in general. Acknowledgement: this study was supported by the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (Eco-technopia 2002). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]