Geomagnetic-Biological Correlations Some New Results

Abstract

Daily admissions of myocardial infarction (heart attack) cases to the Intensive Coronary Care Units of the three main hospitals in Hyderabad and Secunderabad for 1978 (high sunspot year, <i>R_z </i> = 92.5) are studied against the corresponding daily sums of the three-hourly planetary geomagnetic activity indices <i>K_p </i> and the local indices <i>K. </i> The correlation coefficients and their standard errors are computed with the daily data for each month as well as with the monthly mean values for the whole year. Similar computations are made with the freshly abstracted medical data and the geomagnetic data for 1972 (medium sunspot year, <i>Rz </i>= 68.9) for a comparison of the results. Most of the correlation coefficients are not statistically significant. However, for the monthly mean data of 1972, the correlation coefficient (<i>r </i> = + 0.59 ± 0.20) is significant, but not for 1978. Daily data on the number of road accidents in Hyderabad and Secunderabad for 1978 are also investigated against the geomagnetic activity indices, and the correlation coefficients computed and discussed. Average values of the daily hospital admissions for myocardial infarction and the number of road accidents for different levels of geomagnetic activity are also given for the two years and their implications examined. Air accident data due solely to the pilot's error of judgment obtained from the Air Headquarters, New Delhi, for the period 1970-74, are also analyzed along with the K-indices and the magnetic pulsation activity at Choutuppal (Hyderabad). The pulsation activity (pc 2 - pc 5) parameter is found to influence the air accidents more than the K-indices, and appears to be a possible link in triggering biological effects during magnetic storms in weak and imperfect cardia-vascular and nervous systems.