Trends of Air Quality and Cardiorespiratory Mortality in Malaysia During Haze Episodes

Introduction Since the past few decades, transboundary haze from forest fires has become major crises in Southeast Asia and affected public health in Malaysia. Numerous local studies have documented the air pollution and human health impacts, but limited to urban area (Klang Valley) only. This study is to determine the trends of cardiorespiratory mortality, Particulate Matter less than 10ug/m3 (PM10) and meteorological variables by region in Malaysia, which included the haze episodes in 2013 to 2015.

Methods This is time series study of trends conducted in north (Kedah), middle (Kuala Lumpur), south (Johor) & east (Pahang) region from year 2013 to 2016.The daily cardiorespiratory mortality (ICD10 J00-J99 & I00-I99) and PM10 concentrations were obtained from Department of Statistics and Department of Environment, from year 2013-2016, respectively. Haze days were defined as PM10 concentrations more than 100µg/m3. A brief description of PM10, cardiorespiratory mortality and their cross correlations functions (CCF) to observe the associations are provided.

Results [Refer to Poster].

Conclusion CVD and respiratory mortality rates were highest in North region. Haze episodes in 2013-2015 were obvious in all regions with the middle region being the most affected region with the highest number of haze days. Increases trend of PM10 are found to be consistently associated with an increase of trend observed for cardiorespiratory mortality