Acute and chronic health impacts of PM2.5 in China and the influence of interannual meteorological variability

Wang, Yuanlin and Wild, Oliver and Chen, Huansheng and Gao, Meng and Wu, Qizhong and Qi, Yi and Chen, Xueshun and Wang, Zifa (2020) Acute and chronic health impacts of PM2.5 in China and the influence of interannual meteorological variability. Atmospheric Environment, 229. ISSN 1352-2310

[thumbnail of AEA_117397_Manuscript]
Text (AEA_117397_Manuscript)
AEA_117397_Manuscript.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.

Download (1MB)

Abstract

High concentrations of PM2.5 in China have an adverse impact on human health and present a major problem for air quality control. Here we evaluate premature deaths attributable to chronic and acute exposure to ambient PM2.5 at different scales in China over 2013-2017 with an air quality model at 5 km resolution and integrated exposure-response methods. We estimate that 1,210,000 (95% Confidence Interval: 720,000-1,750,000) premature deaths annually are attributable to chronic exposure to PM2.5 pollution. Chongqing exhibits the largest chronic per capita mortality (1.4‰) among all provinces. A total of 116,000 (64,000-170,000) deaths annually are attributable to acute exposure during pollution episodes over the period, with Hubei province showing the highest acute per capita mortality (0.15‰). We also find that in urban areas premature deaths are 520,000 (320,000-760,000) due to chronic and 55,000 (3,000-81,000) due to acute exposure, respectively. At a provincial level, the annual mean PM2.5 concentration varies by ±20% due to interannual variability in meteorology, and PM2.5-attributable chronic mortality varies by ±8%, and by >±5% and ±1% at a national level. Meteorological variability shows larger impacts on interannual variations in acute risks than that in chronic exposure at both provincial (>±20%) and national (±4%) levels. These findings emphasize that tighter controls of PM2.5 and precursor emissions are urgently needed, particularly under unfavorable meteorological conditions in China.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Atmospheric Environment
Additional Information:
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Atmospheric Environment. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Atmospheric Environment, 229, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117397
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1902
Subjects:
?? AIR POLLUTIONPARTICULATE MATTERHEALTH IMPACTSAIR QUALITY MODELLINGEXPOSURE-RESPONSE CURVESMETEOROLOGICAL VARIABILITYCHINAENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE(ALL)ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE ??
ID Code:
142528
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
18 Mar 2020 16:55
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
18 Sep 2023 01:45