Spatio-temporal health benefits attributable to PM_2.5 reduction in an Indian city

ABSTRACT

Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) is linked with a wide spectrum of human health effects and has the highest contribution to total air pollution mortality. This study aims to quantify health benefits of reducing PM_2.5 concentration to World Health Organization standard (annual mean = 10 µg m⁻³) for various health endpoints during 2011–2019 period using AirQ+ and BenMAP-CE software packages. Intraurban assessment in Vellore city, India was done by estimating health benefits at ward level. Both software packages estimated annual average all-cause, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease health benefits in the range of 919–945, 175–234, 70–152, and 99–175 cases at city level and 15–16, 3–4, 1–3, and 2–3 cases at ward level, respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed that relative risk had a large influence on health benefit estimates. Present study results will play a crucial role in the future air quality and public health policies of Vellore city.

KEYWORDS:

• Air Pollution
• Particulate matter
• BenMAP-CE
• AirQ+
• Vellore

Acknowledgment

We are thankful to Prof. Sagnik Dey and Prof. Dilip Ganguly, Center for Atmospheric Sciences IIT, Delhi for freely disseminating the PM_2.5 data through the SAANS web portal. We also thank Vellore Corporation and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation for providing population and baseline incidence data that made this work possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India under Core Research Grant [CRG/2018/000159].