Health Effects of Air Pollution on Street Vendors: A Comparative Study in Bangkok

Abstract

Traffic related air pollutants are a main concern of people living and working along the road. So far a few researches have been conducted to study the adverse health effects of traffic-related air pollutants among street vendors in Thailand. This study aimed to compare the level of traffic-related air pollutants, i.e. fine particulate (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and the daily respiratory and other health symptoms reported by street vendors at roadside and residential areas. A 61-day data collection panel study of the daily concentrations of traffic-related air pollutants in the two areas and daily respiratory and other health symptoms was conducted. The concentrations of air pollu tants PM2.5, SO2, NO2 and CO in the roadside area were much greater than those at the residential area. In addition, 64.0% and 17.0% of 24-hr PM2.5 results in the roadside and residential areas respectively were above the standard of 65 mg/m3 . An adjusted odds ratio of a series of daily reported health symptoms was estimated with 95% confidence interval between the roadside and residential street vendors. The risk of roadside street vendors developing upper respiratory, lower respiratory and other health symptoms were 2.71-4.42, 3.62-7.82 and 1.54-2.80 times greater than those of residential street vendors, respectively. It is possible to conclude that these excess respiratory and other health symptoms are very likely due to traffic-related air pollutants.