It’s worth remembering that although one study population was located in an urban-industrial zone, the other was in a rural location 30 km away – that radius is basically the distance to Caledonia, Beamsville or Lowville. Easily half of the city’s population lives within 5km of the mills, and a third of Hamiltonians live in the lower city, which (thanks to the Niagara Escarpment) tends to be a basin of dirty air.
Particulate trends have apparently been declining fairly steadily over the last decade. One anomaly: With the resurgence of slumbering industry, sulphur dioxide has climbed in the last couple of years, particularly downtown. Hamilton apparently has the highest annual mean SO2 reading of Canadian cities.
City-wide, for every 100 non-trauma deaths, approximately 11 additional deaths are caused by air pollution. In the lower city, that number is generally higher, but varies – Clean Air Hamilton suggests it's around 13 in
Kirkendall, 14 in
McAnulty, 15 in the
North West end, 17 in
Strathcona, 18 in
Wentworth North – and is below the city average near significant green space such as Delta and Red Hill, or along the base of the Escarpment.