Relationship between air pollution,weather, traffic, and traffic-related mortality

Background: Air pollution and weather are just two of many environmental factors contributing to traffic accidents (RTA). Objectives: This study assessed the effects of these factors on traffic accidents and related mortalities in Ahvaz, Iran Methods: In this ecological study, data about RTA, traffic-related mortalities, air pollution (includingNO,CO,NO2,NOx PM10, SO2, an O3 rates) and climate data from March 2008 until March 2015 was acquired from the Khuzestan State Police Force, the Environmenta Protection Agency and the State Meteorological Department. Statistical analysis was performed with STATA 12 through both crud and adjusted negative binomial regression methods Results: There was a significant positive correlation between increase in the monthly average temperature, the number of rain days, and the number of frost days with the number of RTA (P < 0.05). Increased monthly average relative humidity, evaporation and number of sunny days were negatively correlated with the frequency of RTA (P < 0.05). We also observed an inverse significan correlation between monthly average relative humidity, evaporation, and wind speed with traffic accident mortality (P < 0.05) Some air pollutants were negatively associated with the incidence rate of RTA Conclusions: It appears that some weather variables were significantly associated with increased RTA. However, increased levels o air pollutants were not associated with increased rates of RTA and/or related mortalities. Additional studies are recommended to explore this topic in more detail.