A cross sectional epidemiological study on the effect of air pollution from burning coal on the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and diseases in adults was carried out in Taiyuan city of Shanxi province. Adult residents above 25 year-old living in three areas with different degrees of pollution were selected. The results showed that the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and diseases increased with the extent of air pollution after age, sex, occupation, smoking, indoor coal-burning and history of diseases were adjusted with Logistic model.