Assessment of long-term particulate nitrate air pollution and its health risk in China

Yun Hang; Xia Meng; Tiantian Li; Tijian Wang; Junji Cao; Qingyan Fu; Sagnik Dey; Shenshen Li; Kan Huang; Fengchao Liang; Haidong Kan; Xiaoming Shi; Yang Liu

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104899

Assessment of long-term particulate nitrate air pollution and its health risk in China

iScience. 2022 Aug 9;25(9):104899. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104899. eCollection 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Yun Hang¹, Xia Meng², Tiantian Li³, Tijian Wang⁴, Junji Cao⁵, Qingyan Fu⁶, Sagnik Dey⁷, Shenshen Li⁸, Kan Huang⁹, Fengchao Liang¹⁰, Haidong Kan², Xiaoming Shi³, Yang Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
² School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
³ China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China.
⁴ School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁵ Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁶ State Ecologic Environmental Scientific Observation and Research Station at Dianshan Lake, Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center, Shanghai 200235, China.
⁷ Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention (LAP3), Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
¹⁰ School of Public Health and Emergency Management, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.

Abstract

Air pollution is a major environmental and public health challenge in China and the Chinese government has implemented a series of strict air quality policies. However, particulate nitrate (NO₃ ^-) concentration remains high or even increases at monitoring sites despite the total PM_2.5 concentration has decreased. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to estimate NO₃ ^- concentration across China due to the lack of a PM_2.5 speciation monitoring network. Here, we use a machine learning model incorporating ground measurements and satellite data to characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of NO₃ ^-, thereby understanding the disease burden associated with long-term NO₃ ^- exposure in China. Our results show that existing air pollution control policies are effective, but increased NO₃ ^- of traffic emissions offset reduced NO₃ ^- of industrial emissions. In 2018, the national mean mortality burden attributable to NO₃ ^- was as high as 0.68 million, indicating that targeted regulations are needed to control NO₃ ^- pollution in China.

Keywords: Environmental health; Environmental science; Health sciences; Pollution.