Trends of outdoor air pollution and the impact on premature mortality in the Pearl River Delta region of southern China during 2006-2015

Zhiyong Wu; Yuqiang Zhang; Leiming Zhang; Minjuan Huang; Liuju Zhong; Duohong Chen; Xuemei Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.401

Trends of outdoor air pollution and the impact on premature mortality in the Pearl River Delta region of southern China during 2006-2015

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Nov 10:690:248-260. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.401. Epub 2019 Jun 25.

Authors

Zhiyong Wu¹, Yuqiang Zhang², Leiming Zhang³, Minjuan Huang⁴, Liuju Zhong⁵, Duohong Chen⁶, Xuemei Wang⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto M3H 5T4, Canada.
² Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham 27708, USA.
³ Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto M3H 5T4, Canada.
⁴ School of Atmospheric Sciences & Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
⁵ Guangdong Polytechnic of Environmental Protection Engineering, Foshan 528216, China.
⁶ Guangdong Provincial Environmental Monitoring Center, Guangzhou 510308, China.
⁷ Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. Electronic address: eciwxm@jnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31288116
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.401

Abstract

Severe air pollution in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of southern China has increased attention of both the scientific community and policy makers. Air quality data collected at the PRD Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network during 2006-2015 were analyzed for assessing the effectiveness of pollution control measures and for estimating the trends of premature mortality attributable to ambient PM_2.5 and O₃. Statistically significant decreasing trends were detected for PM_2.5 (-1.74 to -1.83 μg m^-3 yr^-1), PM₁₀ (-2.70 to -2.78 μg m^-3 yr^-1), NO (-0.61 to -0.74 μg m^-3 yr^-1), NO₂ (-1.20 to -1.22 μg m^-3 yr^-1), and SO₂ (-3.46 to -4.01 μg m^-3 yr^-1), while an increasing trend was found for O₃ (0.70-0.86 μg m^-3 yr^-1) during the study period. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of control measures implemented in the last decade for primary pollutants and also indicate the challenges for controlling secondary pollutants. The PM_2.5-related premature deaths varied little, e.g., from 40.6 thousand deaths in 2006 to 40.4 thousand deaths in 2015, due to the two contrasting factors, i.e., the decreased PM_2.5 concentration and increased population. The increases in both O₃ concentration and exposed population resulted in a significant rising trend for the O₃-related premature deaths, which increased from 2.7 thousand deaths in 2006 to 4.5 thousand deaths in 2015, at a rate of 165 deaths yr^-1. Consistent with the spatial distribution of air pollution and population density, high levels of premature deaths from PM_2.5 and O₃ were located in the central PRD including Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, and Shenzhen. Decreasing PM_2.5 concentration is the most effective way in reducing the regional mortality burden from air pollution in the near future. Besides controlling primary emissions of PM_2.5, reducing VOCs emissions is also important for limiting atmospheric oxidizing capacity and associated secondary PM_2.5 formation.

Keywords: Air pollution; Health burden; Long-term trend; Ozone; Particulate matter; Pearl River Delta (PRD).

MeSH terms

Air Pollution / statistics & numerical data*
China
Environmental Exposure / statistics & numerical data*
Mortality, Premature / trends*
Rivers