Air pollution intervention and life-saving effect in China

Bin Zou; Jiewen You; Yan Lin; Xiaoli Duan; Xiuge Zhao; Xin Fang; Matthew J Campen; Shenxin Li

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.045

Air pollution intervention and life-saving effect in China

Environ Int. 2019 Apr:125:529-541. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.045. Epub 2019 Jan 3.

Authors

Bin Zou¹, Jiewen You², Yan Lin³, Xiaoli Duan⁴, Xiuge Zhao⁵, Xin Fang², Matthew J Campen⁶, Shenxin Li²

Affiliations

¹ School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China. Electronic address: 210010@csu.edu.cn.
² School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China.
³ Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
⁴ School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
⁶ Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of New Mexico-Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.

PMID: 30612707
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.045

Abstract

As a critical air pollutant, PM_2.5 is proved to be associated with numerous adverse health impacts and pose serious challenges to human life. This situation is especially important for China as the most populous and one of the heaviest PM_2.5 polluted country in the world. However, health burden estimations reported for China in previous studies may be biased due to the usage of PM_2.5 concentrations at a coarsely spatial resolution, as well as the ignorance of the spatial discrepancies of parameters (e.g. respiratory rate) employed in the exposure-response function. This study therefore utilized a hybrid remote sensing-geostatistical approach to refine PM_2.5 concentrations at 1 km resolution across mainland China from 2013 to 2017. Meanwhile, nationwide exposure parameters were for the first time introduced to weight the integrated exposure response (IER) function to calculate and spatially reallocate the corresponding PM_2.5-attributable premature deaths at 1 km resolution. Results showed that annually averaged PM_2.5 concentrations in mainland China decreased by 39.5%, from 59.1 μg/m³ in 2013 to 35.8 μg/m³ in 2017. Subsequently, PM_2.5 attributable premature deaths reduced 12.6%, from 1.20 million (95% CI: 0.57; 1.71) in 2013 to 1.05 million (95% CI: 0.44; 1.44) in 2017. This declining trend was found in most parts of China except some areas in Xinjiang, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces. As a result, 214,821 (95% CI: 96,675; 302,897) life were saved with an estimated monetary value of US$ 210.14 billion (2011 values). However, it has to be acknowledged that, the central and northern China within priority areas of air pollution control were still experiencing high numbers of premature deaths due to the severe PM_2.5 pollution and high-density population. But more worrying than these priority areas are those Harbin-Changchun Metropolitan Region, City Belt in Central Henan and Yangtze-Huaihe City Belt in non-priority areas, which also have been seriously suffering PM_2.5 attributable premature deaths over 28, 000 cases per year. In conclusion, despite the huge gain in life-saving effects in China over the past five years with the help of air pollution intervention policy, future work on cleaner air and better human health is still strongly needed, especially in non-priority areas of air pollution control.

Keywords: Exposure parameters; Health burden; PM(2.5); Remote sensing; Spatial-temporal.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants / analysis*
Air Pollution / analysis*
China
Cities
Environmental Exposure / analysis*
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Humans
Mortality, Premature
Particulate Matter / analysis*
Remote Sensing Technology

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter