Assessments of population exposure to environmental pollutants using air quality measurements during Commonwealth Games-2010

Abstract

During the "Commonwealth Games" 2010 (CWG-2010) in Delhi, the Indian government has implemented an ambitious project "System of Air quality Forecasting And Research (SAFAR)" for monitoring and forecasting air-quality scenario. Using high-precision spatio-temporal measurements of criteria pollutants from the SAFAR network, the number of cases are estimated for total, cardiovascular and respiratory mortalities and hospital admissions. In a thinly populated airport area, the excess number of cases for total mortality show ∼10 for PM2.5 and 25 for PM10, whereas, ∼110 for PM2.5 and ∼300 for PM10 in most populous Delhi University (DU) area. Cardiovascular mortality in airport area show ∼5 and <10 for PM2.5 and PM10, respectively, but, in DU area show ∼55 for PM2.5 and ∼140 for PM10. In DU locality, respiratory mortality shows ∼7 and ∼20 for PM2.5 and PM10 and, hospital admissions show ∼11 and ∼30 for PM2.5 and PM10, respectively. In airport area, excess cases of respiratory mortality and hospital admission tends to one for exposure to PM2.5 or PM10 levels indicating effective exposure is the key factor for health hazards. As public health gains, low air pollution levels were observed before the CWG due to effective washout by monsoonal rain and during CWG under policy-induced air quality measures could increase the life expectancy as against to post-CWG period. These results are important for the megacities in developing world as the SAFAR project is internationally recognized by the Global Urban Research Meteorology and Environment of the World Meteorological Organization.

Premature mortality in India due to PM2.5 and ozone exposure

“…Most of these studies were focused on the United States and Europe and relatively little work has been devoted to India. Studies that relate air quality and human health have been performed only focusing on a few urban areas of India [ Gupta , ; Guttikunda and Goel , ; Chate et al ., ; Nagpure et al ., ] using aggregated data of local air quality. This study assesses the impact of only outdoor air quality on health for all of India on district scale.…”

“…Most of these studies were focused on the United States and Europe and relatively little work has been devoted to India. Studies that relate air quality and human health have been performed only focusing on a few urban areas of India [Gupta, 2011;Guttikunda and Goel, 2013;Chate et al, 2013;Nagpure et al, 2014] Burnett et al [2014], which accounts for health effect at even higher exposure concentrations. We have estimated premature mortalities due to ischemic heart disease (IHD), cerebrovascular disease (CEV, stroke), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer (LC) for adult population, and acute lower respiratory illness (ALRI) for infants (<5 years old) linked to PM 2.5 exposure.…”

Rising critical emission of air pollutants from renewable biomass based cogeneration from the sugar industry in India

“…particulate matter (PM), NO X, SO 2 and CO) and CO 2 from the world's second largest sugar industry for 2014. The study quantifies and identifies the emission hot spot regions across the country and will contribute to improve emission inventories used for global/ regional chemical transport modeling for air quality studies and other applications (Pawar et al 2012 andChate et al 2013).…”

Source Apportionment of PM10 at an Urban Site of a South Asian Mega City

“…PM not only influences global climate change, but also has been associated with adverse health and enviromnetal impacts as reported in previous studies (Gwynn et al, 2000;Husain et al, 2007;Lodhi et al, 2009;Khan et al, 2010;Stone et al, 2010;Kaushar et al, 2013;Kim et al, 2015;Pope et al, 2015). Ghude et al (2016) has reported premature mortality rate due to exposure of PM 2.5 and ozone concentration in India and Chate et al (2013) has assessed the population exposure in India due to air pollutants during Common Wealth games in 2010. Atmospheric PM that has aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 µm (PM 10 ) has been studied intensively over the past few decades, because this size fraction is respirable is trapped by the alveoli of the lungs (Perez et al, 2008).…”