The morbidity and mortality survey of a neiborhood of an industrial park

• Main Authors: Mei-chun Liu, 劉美君
• Other Authors: Saou-hsing Liou
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/25683269306395321706

碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 公共衛生學研究所 === 90 === The major industry of our country had switched to semiconductor industry since 1970’s. The changes have brought fortune as well as the price of huge amount of chemicals wastes. Most of the chemicals used in the semiconductor industry are hazardous solvents and gases that might produce more hazardous to residents during the industrial process. These hazards not only pollute our environment but also affect human health. The purpose of our study is to investigate whether the pollutants from an industrial park will affect its neighborhood residents by studying their rates of morbidity and mortality. The resident population was provided by the Ministry of Interior, which merged with dataset of death registry and health insurance records. This study compared the morbidity and mortality rate by grouping the population around certain industrial park by three concentric circles of 5km squares. Our results showed the morbidity rate of pneumoconiosis and other lung diseases due to external agents were not associated with the residential area. The morbidity (hospitalization) rate of chronic and unspecified bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, respiratory cancer, premature birth and fetal death and morbidity rate of spontaneous abortion in the OPD were also not associated with the residential area. People who lived 5-10km away from the industrial park had the highest morbidity rate of liver cancer, dermatitis and congenital anomalies in the both OPD and hospitalization, premature birth, fetal death in the OPD and spontaneous abortion in hospitalization. The highest risk were found in old age group(over 50 year-old). The death rates of liver cancer and respiratory cancer were increased by age. People who lived within 5km of industrial park had higher risk of death due to liver cancer and respiratory cancer than people lived 10km away from the industrial park. Sex is the effect modifier of skin cancer mortality. The risk of death in chronic and unspecified bronchitis, emphysema, asthma and congenital anomalies were not associated with the residential area. In conclusion, people who live near the industrial park had increased morbidity rate of liver cancer, respiratory cancer, dermatitis and congenital anomalies in the OPD, but the death rate and hospitalized rate were not found to be associated with residential area. However, this study may be limited by lacking of confounding factor adjustment and no available environmental exposure data.