Air pollution and general practice consultations for respiratory illnesses.

Associations between air pollution and hospital admissions and mortalities have been demonstrated in many studies. By contrast, few studies have reported the relation between air pollution and respiratory morbidity in general practice (GP). In these studies, associations have been reported between air pollution and GP consultations for asthma, lower respiratory tract infections, and allergic rhinitis. 3 To further explore these associations, we prospectively collected daily numbers of GP consultations from seven clinics in various districts of Hong Kong and performed a time series analysis to examine their relations with daily concentrations of PM10, NO2 , SO2, and O3 measured in stations within or nearest to each district.