Thursday, December 24, 2009 NEW YORK: Air pollution may double the risk that an elderly person will be hospitalized for pneumonia, according to a new study."We have shown that air pollution exerts a strong effect on hospital admissions for pneumonia," Michael Jerrett, of the University of California, Berkeley, who was involved in the study, noted in an interview.About 600,000 people are hospitalized for pneumonia in the United States each year. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in the elderly.The study -- led by researchers at McMaster University in Canada and reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine -- looked at health data from 345 people who had been hospitalized for pneumonia within a two-year period. All of them were 65 or older and lived in Hamilton, Ontario.Hamilton is home to a large industrial steel-making complex. Residents living near the complex are exposed to high levels of tiny, floating particles known as particulate mat...
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