Air Pollution and Emergency Department Visits for Suicide Attempts in Vancouver, Canada

The effects of ambient air pollution on visits to a Vancouver emergency room for suicide attempts were investigated. The generalized linear mixed models technique was applied in the analysis of data. Both hierarchical & case-crossover methods confirmed positive & statistically significant associations among carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, & particulate matter for all suicide attempts in the cold period (October-March). The largest increase was observed for males in the cold period for a 1-day lagged exposure to nitrogen dioxide with an excess risk of 23.9% & odds ratio of 1.21. In warm months the associations were not statistically significant & the highest positive value was obtained for ozone lagged by 1 day. (39 refs.) JA