Correlation Between Measured Ambient Airborne Particulate Matter (PM10) Concentrations and Ophthalmologic Disease Non-Battle Injury (DNBI) Rates in Active Duty Personnel Deployed to a US Military Base in Central Command (CENTCOM) Between October 1999 and September 2001

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Previous studies have suggested an association between ambient airborne particulate matter (PM 10) concentrations and adverse ophthalmologic conditions. To determine a correlation between PM 10 and Ophthalmologic Disease, Non-battle Injuries (DNBI), datasets currently available on active duty personnel deployed to a US military base in Central Command (CENTCOM) were collected and analyzed for the period between October 1999 and September 2001. Weekly averages of ophthalmologic, non-ophthalmologic, and total DNBI rates were compared to a weekly average PM 10 concentration and Pearson's coefficients were calculated (r =0.00024 with p value = 0.5, r =0.090 with p-value =0.239, and r =0.087 with p-value =0.246, respectively). The extremely low r coefficients indicate that there is no correlation between weekly average PM 10 concentrations and weekly average Ophthalmologic Disease, Non-battle Injury Rates at this location. Two conclusions are suggested: (1) the PMl0 was not at a sufficient or consistently high enough level to affect the eye, or (2) personnel may already be protecting their eyes by wearing sunglasses and goggles or staying indoors when weather conditions are very windy.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.