Health impact assessment of the surface water pollution in China

Yang Guan; Nannan Zhang; Chengjun Chu; Yang Xiao; Ren Niu; Chaofeng Shao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173040

Health impact assessment of the surface water pollution in China

Sci Total Environ. 2024 May 9:933:173040. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173040. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yang Guan¹, Nannan Zhang², Chengjun Chu³, Yang Xiao⁴, Ren Niu², Chaofeng Shao⁵

Affiliations

¹ Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China.
² Institute of Strategic Planning, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing 100041, China.
³ Center of Environmental Status and Plan Assessment, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing 100041, China.
⁴ Institute of Strategic Planning, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing 100041, China; The Center for Beautiful China, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing 100041, China.
⁵ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China. Electronic address: shaocf@nankai.edu.cn.

PMID: 38729374
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173040

Abstract

China suffers from severe surface water pollution. Health impact assessment could provide a novel and quantifiable metric for the health burden attributed to surface water pollution. This study establishes a health impact assessment method for surface water pollution based on classic frameworks, integrating the multi-pollutant city water quality index (CWQI), informative epidemiological findings, and benchmark public health information. A relative risk level assignment approach is proposed based on the CWQI, innovatively addressing the challenge in surface water-human exposure risk assessment. A case study assesses the surface water pollution-related health impact in 336 Chinese cities. The results show (1) between 2015 and 2022, total health impact decreased from 3980.42 thousand disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) (95 % Confidence Interval: 3242.67-4339.29) to 3260.10 thousand DALYs (95 % CI: 2475.88-3641.35), measured by total cancer. (2) The annual average health impacts of oesophageal, stomach, colorectal, gallbladder, and pancreatic cancers added up to 2621.20 thousand DALYs (95 % CI: 2095.58-3091.10), revealing the significant health impact of surface water pollution on digestive cancer. (3) In 2022, health impacts in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surroundings, the Yangtze River Delta, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River added up to 1893.06 thousand DALYs (95 % CI: 1471.82-2097.88), showing a regional aggregating trend. (4) Surface water pollution control has been the primary driving factor to health impact improvement, contributing -3.49 % to the health impact change from 2015 to 2022. It is the first city-level health impact map for China's surface water pollution. The methods and findings will support the water management policymaking in China and other countries suffering from water pollution.

Keywords: Cancer; Chinese cities; City water quality index; Driver decomposition; Health impact; Surface water pollution.