Effects of Air Pollution on Human Health: a Case Study of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Namuun Turbold

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Environmental air pollution poses severe challenges to human health, the effects which are mostly seen as respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers. Our health is closely related to our environment. The goal of this study was to identify air pollutants of health importance to humans and determine their harmful effects on human health, to determine if there is a correlation between exposure to environmental air pollutants and hospital visits due to symptoms of respiratory diseases, and to determine whether exposure to environmental air pollution has a significant effect on hospital visits due to symptoms of respiratory diseases. Data on 299 patients who presented to The First Central Hospital of Mongolia with respiratory and infectious diseases from 1st January 2022 till 3rd March 2022 were acquired from their case files in compliance with the ethics committee's guidelines. The information gathered includes gender, age, diagnosis, address, the month of the last hospital visit, positive family history of the diseases, occupation, exposure to toxic substances in the living area, smoking, years of smoking, and the number of packets of cigarettes per day. The Pearson correlation coefficients of correlation between environmental air pollutants and total hospital visits are 0.99, indicating a strong correlation, and the P value of 0.004 (p<0.05) using two-tail analysis shows that exposure to environmental air pollutants has a significant effect on total hospital visits due to illness symptoms at a 95% confidence interval. The findings support that air pollution severely affects human health, particularly in causing symptoms and diseases.

Keywords

Air pollution, Health, Environment, Respiratory disease

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 1. 4. 2023

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 24. 5. 2023
• Supervisor: Mgr. Marta Martínková, Ph.D.
• Reader: Martin Heřmanovský, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Environmental Sciences

Bachelor programme:
Environmental Engineering