We used Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to analyze the impact on a given population's health outcomes in terms of all-causes mortality and respiratory and cardiovascular hospitalizations attributable to short-term exposure to particulate matter less than 10 μm diameter (PM10) in Bejaia city, for which health effects of air pollution have never been investigated. Two scenarios of PM10 reduction were considered: first, a scenario where the PM10 annual mean is decreased by 5 µg/m3, and then a scenario where this PM10 mean is decreased to 20 µg/m3 (World Health Organization annual air quality guideline (WHO-AQG)). Annual mean level of PM10 (81.7 µg/m3) was calculated from objective measurements assessed in situ. Each year, about 4 and 55 deaths could be postponed with the first and the second scenarios successfully. Furthermore, decreasing PM10 annual mean by 5 µg/m3 would avoid 5 and 3 respiratory and cardiac hospitalizations, respectively, and not exceeding the PM10 WHO-AQG (20 µg/m3) would result in a potential gain of 36 and 23 per 100000 respiratory and cardiac hospitalizations, respectively. Lowering in current levels of PM10 has a nonnegligible impact in terms of public health that it is expected to be higher in the case of long-term effects.
Different ways can be used to determinate the effects of hydrocarbons on plants: the bioindication with plants is one of these methods. It consists of using sensitive plants like Petunia hybrida to evaluate the urban levels of hydrocarbon pollution. The sensitivity shows physiological and morphological modifications. In this context, this research aims to characterize the level of exposure to air pollutants resulting from anthropogenic activities in urban area of Bejaia (Algeria) by measuring the morphological impacts induced on Petunia hybrida using 11 parameters detailing the morphological development of this plant. During 7 weeks (March 23- May 11, 2017), ten monitoring stations were chosen in this city. The results showed that the most important morphological changes are directly associated with the stations closest to the main atmospheric emission zones. It is by moving away from these sources of exposure that the morphological changes observed in this bioindicating plant become less important. These results coincide with those found for particle matter concentrations including PM10 and PM2.5 which indicate that Daouadji and Aamriw stations are the most polluted sites in Bejaia. Analyzes carried out on research station located in rural area (more than 30 km from the studied city) revealed a greater general development compared to other stations.
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