NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - 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 with Reuters
Health. 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 matter. The researchers