The short-term effects of air pollution on health in Sfax (Tunisia): An ARDL cointegration procedure

The purpose of this study is to explore the short-term effects of air pollution on the frequency of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in urban area of Sfax (Tunisia). We insist also on the influence of meteorological factors on the frequency of these diseases. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration procedure introduced by Pesaran. M and Shin. Y (1999) and extended by Pesaran. M and al. (2001), the results shows that there is a significant link between pollutant emissions especially dioxide sulfur (SO
2
) and the ozone (O
3
) and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. We also concluded that the meteorological factors, especially the wind velocity affects the occurrence of the diseases.