Short-term effect of dust storms on the risk of mortality due to respiratory, cardiovascular and all-causes in Kuwait

This study aimed to investigate the impact of dust storms on short-term mortality in Kuwait. We analyzed respiratory and cardiovascular mortality as well as all-cause mortality in relation to dust storm events over a 5-year study period, using data obtained through a population-based retrospective ecological time series study. Dust storm days were identified when the national daily average of PM10 exceeded 200 mu g/m(3). Generalized additive models with Poisson link were used to estimate the relative risk (RR) of age-stratified daily mortality associated with dust events, after adjusting for potential confounders including weather variables and long-term trends. There was no significant association between dust storm events and same-day respiratory mortality (RR = 0.96; 95 %CI 0.88-1.04), cardiovascular mortality (RR = 0.98; 95 %CI 0.96-1.012) or all-cause mortality (RR = 0.99; 95 %CI 0.97-1.00). Overall our findings suggest that local dust, that most likely originates from crustal materials, has little impact on short-term respiratory, cardiovascular or all-cause mortality.