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Cause-specific deaths by day for the years 1973 to 1980 In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were extracted from Natlonal Center for Health Statistics mortallty tapes. Death from accldents (Internatlonal Classification of Disease, Revislon 9> 800) and deaths outslde of the clty were excluded. Dally counts of deaths were regressed using Polsson regression on total suspended partlculate (TSP) and/or SO, on the same day and on the precedlng day, controlllng for year, season, temperature, and humldity. A signlficant positive association was found between total mortallty (mean of 48 deaths/day) and both TSP (second highest dally mean, 222 pg/m") and SO,(second highest daily mean, 299 ug/m"). The strongest assoclatlons were found with the mean pollution of the cur-rent and the preceding days. Total mortallty was estimated to increase by 7%(95% Cl, 4 to 10%) wlth each 100-ug/m" increase in TSP, and 59%(9596 Cl, 3 …