Health Impact Assessment of PM10 and PM2.5 in 27 Southeast and East Asian Cities

J Occup Environ Med. 2015 Jul;57(7):751-6. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000000485.

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the annual health impacts of particulate matter (PM) less than 10 μm diameter (PM10) and less than 2.5-μm diameter (PM2.5) in 27 cities in Southeast and East Asian countries (Japan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam) for the year 2009 (n = 50,756,699).

Methods: We estimated the number of cases attributable to long-term exposure. We used a scenario that reduced the annual mean values for PM10 and PM2.5 to 20 and 10 μg/m, respectively.

Results: A reduction in long-term exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 would have postponed 8% to 9% of all-cause mortality or about 37,000 deaths. One third of them were associated with cardiopulmonary mortality and one ninth of them were associated with lung cancer mortality.

Conclusions: Current air pollution levels in Southeast and East Asian countries have a nonnegligible public health impact.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants / analysis*
  • Asia
  • Cities
  • Environmental Exposure / analysis*
  • Health Impact Assessment*
  • Humans
  • Particulate Matter / analysis*

Substances

  • Air Pollutants
  • Particulate Matter