scholarly journals Estimating health burden and economic loss attributable to short-term exposure to multiple air pollutants in China

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minghong Yao ◽  
Gonghua Wu ◽  
Xing Zhao ◽  
Juying Zhang

Abstract Background Existing studies focused on the evaluation of health burden of long-term exposure to air pollutants, whereas limited information is available on short-term exposure, particularly in China.Methods Air pollutants concentrations in 338 Chinese cities in 2017 were used to estimate the air pollutants related health burden which was defined as premature mortalities from all-cause, cardiovascular and respiratory disease as well as hospital admissions (HAs) for cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Log-linear model was used as the exposure-response function to estimate the health burden attributable to each air pollutant. The value of statistical life and cost of illness methods were used to estimate economic loss of the premature mortalities and HAs, respectively.Results The national all-cause premature mortalities attributable to all air pollutants was 1.35 million, accounting for 17.2% of reported deaths in China in 2017. Among all-cause premature mortality, contributions of PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3 were 16.3%, 9.6%, 28.9%, 22.2% and 23.0%, respectively. The national cardiovascular and respiratory premature mortalities were 0.78 and 0.21 million, respectively. About 6.79 million cardiovascular and respiratory disease HAs were attributed to short-term exposure to PM10, SO2, NO2, and O3. The economic loss of the overall health burden was 2057.66 billion Yuan, which was equivalent to 2.5% of the national GDP in 2017.Conclusions The health burden and economic loss attributable to short-term exposure to ambient air pollutant are substantial in China. It suggested that the adverse health effects attributable to short-term exposure to air pollutant should not be neglected in China.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wang ◽  
Zhen Liu ◽  
Lian Yang ◽  
Jiushun Zhou ◽  
Jia Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Some prevalent but rarely studied causes of hospital admissions, such as sepsis is still unknown whether affected by air pollution. Methods We used time-series regression within generalized additive models to estimate the effect of air pollutant level on the sepsis-related hospital admissions, for the years 2017–18, using data from six cities in Sichuan, China. Potential effect modifications by age and sex were also explored. The effects of air pollutant on hospital stays for sepsis were also quantified. Results Positive associations between short-term exposure to NO2 and O3 and risk of sepsis-related hospital admissions and stays were found. Each 10 μg/m3 increase in short-term NO2 at lag 03 and O3 at lag 4 was associated with an increase of 2.76% (95% CI: 0.67, 4.84%) and 0.64% (95% CI: 0.14, 1.14%) hospital admissions, respectively. An increase of 0.72% (95% CI: 0.05, 1.40%) hospital stay was associated with 10 μg/m3 increase in O3 concentration at lag 4. Besides, the adverse effect of exposure to NO2 was more significant in males and population aged less than 14 years; while more significant in females and population aged 14 ~ 65 and over 65 years for exposure to O3. These associations remained stable after the adjustment of other air pollutants.8. Conclusion Exposure to ambient NO2 and O3 may cause substantial sepsis hospitalizations, and hospital stays in Sichuan, China. These associations were different in subgroup by age and sex.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liudmila Saveleva ◽  
Petra Vartiainen ◽  
Veronika Gorova ◽  
Sweelin Chew ◽  
Irina Belaya ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTEpidemiological studies reveal that air pollution exposure may exacerbate neurodegeneration. Ultrafine particles (UFPs) are pollutants that remain unregulated in ambient air by environmental agencies. Due to their small size (<100nm), UFPs have the most potential to cross the bodily barriers and thus impact the brain. However, little information exists about how UFPs affect brain function. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, which has been linked to air pollutant exposure, yet limited information is available on the mechanistic connection between them. This study aims to decipher the effects of UFPs in the brain and periphery using the 5xFAD mouse model of AD. In our study design, AD mice and their wildtype littermates were subjected to 2-weeks inhalation exposure of UFPs in a whole-body chamber. That subacute exposure did not affect the blood-brain barrier integrity or amyloid-beta accumulation. However, when multiple cytokines were analyzed, we found increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines in the brain and periphery, with a predominant alteration of interferon-gamma in response to UFP exposure in both genotypes. Following exposure, mitochondrial superoxide dismutase was significantly upregulated only in the 5xFAD hippocampi, depicting oxidative stress induction in the exposed AD mouse group. These data demonstrate that short-term exposure to inhaled UFPs induces inflammation without affecting amyloid-beta load. This study provides a better understanding of adverse effects caused by short-term UFP exposure in the brain and periphery, also in the context of AD.GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Author(s):  
Qiwei Yu ◽  
Liqiang Zhang ◽  
Kun Hou ◽  
Jingwen Li ◽  
Suhong Liu ◽  
...  

Exposure to air pollution has been suggested to be associated with an increased risk of women’s health disorders. However, it remains unknown to what extent changes in ambient air pollution affect gynecological cancer. In our case–control study, the logistic regression model was combined with the restricted cubic spline to examine the association of short-term exposure to air pollution with gynecological cancer events using the clinical data of 35,989 women in Beijing from December 2008 to December 2017. We assessed the women’s exposure to air pollutants using the monitor located nearest to each woman’s residence and working places, adjusting for age, occupation, ambient temperature, and ambient humidity. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were examined to evaluate gynecologic cancer risk in six time windows (Phase 1–Phase 6) of women’s exposure to air pollutants (PM2.5, CO, O3, and SO2) and the highest ORs were found in Phase 4 (240 days). Then, the higher adjusted ORs were found associated with the increased concentrations of each pollutant (PM2.5, CO, O3, and SO2) in Phase 4. For instance, the adjusted OR of gynecological cancer risk for a 1.0-mg m−3 increase in CO exposures was 1.010 (95% CI: 0.881–1.139) below 0.8 mg m−3, 1.032 (95% CI: 0.871–1.194) at 0.8–1.0 mg m−3, 1.059 (95% CI: 0.973–1.145) at 1.0–1.4 mg m−3, and 1.120 (95% CI: 0.993–1.246) above 1.4 mg m−3. The ORs calculated in different air pollution levels accessed us to identify the nonlinear association between women’s exposure to air pollutants (PM2.5, CO, O3, and SO2) and the gynecological cancer risk. This study supports that the gynecologic risks associated with air pollution should be considered in improved public health preventive measures and policymaking to minimize the dangerous effects of air pollution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Ashworth ◽  
◽  
Antonis Analitis ◽  
David Whitney ◽  
Evangelia Samoli ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Although the associations of outdoor air pollution exposure with mortality and hospital admissions are well established, few previous studies have reported on primary care clinical and prescribing data. We assessed the associations of short and long-term pollutant exposures with General Practitioner respiratory consultations and inhaler prescriptions. Methods Daily primary care data, for 2009–2013, were obtained from Lambeth DataNet (LDN), an anonymised dataset containing coded data from all patients (1.2 million) registered at general practices in Lambeth, an inner-city south London borough. Counts of respiratory consultations and inhaler prescriptions by day and Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) of residence were constructed. We developed models for predicting daily PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and O3 per LSOA. We used spatio-temporal mixed effects zero inflated negative binomial models to investigate the simultaneous short- and long-term effects of exposure to pollutants on the number of events. Results The mean concentrations of NO2, PM10, PM2.5 and O3 over the study period were 50.7, 21.2, 15.6, and 49.9 μg/m3 respectively, with all pollutants except NO2 having much larger temporal rather than spatial variability. Following short-term exposure increases to PM10, NO2 and PM2.5 the number of consultations and inhaler prescriptions were found to increase, especially for PM10 exposure in children which was associated with increases in daily respiratory consultations of 3.4% and inhaler prescriptions of 0.8%, per PM10 interquartile range (IQR) increase. Associations further increased after adjustment for weekly average exposures, rising to 6.1 and 1.2%, respectively, for weekly average PM10 exposure. In contrast, a short-term increase in O3 exposure was associated with decreased number of respiratory consultations. No association was found between long-term exposures to PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 and number of respiratory consultations. Long-term exposure to NO2 was associated with an increase (8%) in preventer inhaler prescriptions only. Conclusions We found increases in the daily number of GP respiratory consultations and inhaler prescriptions following short-term increases in exposure to NO2, PM10 and PM2.5. These associations are more pronounced in children and persist for at least a week. The association with long term exposure to NO2 and preventer inhaler prescriptions indicates likely increased chronic respiratory morbidity.


Author(s):  
Zahra Namvar ◽  
Mostafa Hadei ◽  
Seyed Saeed Hashemi ◽  
Elahe Shahhosseini ◽  
Philip K. Hopke ◽  
...  

Introduction: Air pollution is one of the main causes for the significant increase of respiratory infections in Tehran. In the present study, we investigated the associations between short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants with the hospital admissions and deaths. Materials and methods: Health data from 39915 hospital admissions and 2459 registered deaths associated with these hospital admissions for respiratory infections were obtained from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education during 2014-2017. We used the distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) for the analyses. Results: There was a statistically positive association between PM2.5 and AURI in the age group of 16 years and younger at lags 6 (RR 1.31; 1.05-1.64) and 7 (RR 1.50; 1.09-2.06). AURI admissions was associated with O3 in the age group of 16 and 65 years at lag 7 with RR 1.13 (1.00-1.27). ALRI admissions was associated with CO in the age group of 65 years and older at lag 0 with RR 1.12 (1.02-1.23). PM10 was associated with ALRI daily hospital admissions at lag 0 for males. ALRI admissions were associated with NO2 for females at lag 0. There was a positive association between ALRI deaths and SO2 in the age group of 65 years and older at lags 4 and 5 with RR 1.04 (1.00-1.09) and 1.03 (1.00-1.07), respectively. Conclusion: Exposure to outdoor air pollutants including PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, O3, and CO was associated with hospital admissions for AURI and ALRI at different lags. Moreover, exposure to SO2 was associated with deaths for ALRI.


Author(s):  
Lisha Luo ◽  
Yunquan Zhang ◽  
Junfeng Jiang ◽  
Hanghang Luan ◽  
Chuanhua Yu ◽  
...  

In this study, we estimated the short-term effects of ambient air pollution on respiratory disease hospitalization in Taiyuan, China. Daily data of respiratory disease hospitalization, daily concentration of ambient air pollutants and meteorological factors from 1 October 2014 to 30 September 2017 in Taiyuan were included in our study. We conducted a time-series study design and applied a generalized additive model to evaluate the association between every 10-μg/m3 increment of air pollutants and percent increase of respiratory disease hospitalization. A total of 127,565 respiratory disease hospitalization cases were included in this study during the present period. In single-pollutant models, the effect values in multi-day lags were greater than those in single-day lags. PM2.5 at lag02 days, SO2 at lag03 days, PM10 and NO2 at lag05 days were observed to be strongly and significantly associated with respiratory disease hospitalization. No significant association was found between O3 and respiratory disease hospitalization. SO2 and NO2 were still significantly associated with hospitalization after adjusting for PM2.5 or PM10 into two-pollutant models. Females and younger population for respiratory disease were more vulnerable to air pollution than males and older groups. Therefore, some effective measures should be taken to strengthen the management of the ambient air pollutants, especially SO2 and NO2, and to enhance the protection of the high-risk population from air pollutants, thereby reducing the burden of respiratory disease caused by ambient air pollution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
You-Jung Choi ◽  
Sun-Hwa Kim ◽  
Si-Hyuck Kang ◽  
Sun-Young Kim ◽  
Ok-Jin Kim ◽  
...  

AbstractElevated blood pressure (BP) has been proposed as a possible pathophysiological mechanism linking exposure to ambient air pollution and the increased risk of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. In this study, we investigated the hourly relationship between ambient air pollutants and BP. BP measurements were extracted from the electronic health record database of the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from February 2015 to June 2017. A total of 98,577 individual BP measurements were matched to the hourly levels of air pollutants. A generalized additive model was constructed for hour lags of 0–8 of air pollutants adjusting for age, sex, meteorological variables, and time trend. Systolic BP was shown to be significantly lower at 2–4 hours and 3–5 hours after increased levels of SO2 and CO, respectively (0.24 mmHg and 0.26 mmHg for an interquartile range, respectively). In contrast, O3 and NO2 were associated with significantly increased systolic BP at 3–5 lag hours and at 0–2 lag hours, respectively. BP elevation in association with O3 and NO2 was shown to be significantly greater in hypertensive patients than normotensive subjects. Our findings suggest that short-term exposure to air pollution may be associated with elevated BP.


Author(s):  
Shang-Shyue Tsai ◽  
Hui-Fen Chiu ◽  
Chun-Yuh Yang

Very few studies have been performed to determine whether there is a relationship between air pollution and increases in hospitalizations for peptic ulcer, and for those that have occurred, their results may not be completely relevant to Taiwan, where the mixture of ambient air pollutants differ. We performed a time-stratified case-crossover study to investigate the possible association between air pollutant levels and hospital admissions for peptic ulcer in Taipei, Taiwan. To do this, we collected air pollution data from Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency and hospital admissions for peptic ulcer data for the years 2009–2013 from Taiwan's National Health Insurance's research database. We used conditional logistic regression to analyze the possible association between the two, taking temperature and relative humidity into account. Risk was expressed as odds ratios and significance was expressed with 95% confidence intervals. In our single pollutant model, peptic ulcer admissions were significantly associated with all pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3) on warm days (>23 °C). On cool days (<23 °C), peptic ulcer admissions were significantly associated with PM10, NO2, and O3. In our two-pollutant models, peptic ulcer admissions were significantly associated NO2 and O3 when combined with each of the other pollutants on warm days, and with PM10, NO2, and O3 on cool days. It was concluded that the likelihood of peptic ulcer hospitalizations in Taipei rose significantly with increases in air pollutants during the study period.


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