The Effect of Air Pollution Emissions on Community Health Outcomes

Abstract

The public health impacts of air pollution are vast, proven to be linked with adverse health effects such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. This study is meant to provide a better understanding of the association between air pollution emissions, asthma outcomes, and health status in Texas. The purpose of the study is to help aid in the implementation of preventive measures, healthcare services to affected communities, and better enforcement of air quality standards in the field of public health. The study design utilized a quantitative approach with primary and secondary data collection methods through use of surveys and governmental data gathered from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was later used to run one-way ANOVA tests to understand the association between the study variables. The results indicated that asthma outcomes were prevalent among participants with 64% having been diagnosed with asthma by a healthcare professional, 56% experiencing asthma symptomatology, and 40% agreeing they have had asthma affect their sleep days. However, in comparison with air quality index (AQI), there were no significant differences in mean AQI scores between groups related to asthma outcomes or health status. Similarly, there were no significant differences in residential farm density (RFD) and groups related to asthma outcomes or health status. Though the findings were insignificant, future studies can still mimic the methodology of this study with a larger sample size to capture more adequately the complexity of the associations under consideration.