Change in household fuels dominates the decrease in PM _2.5 exposure and premature mortality in China in 2005–2015

Abstract

SignificanceThe Chinese government has taken efforts to tackle the nation’s severe ambient fine particle (PM2.5) pollution. Our results suggest that reduced household solid-fuel consumption was the leading contributor to the rapid decrease in the integrated exposure to ambient and household PM2.5 pollution during 2005–2015, even though there was no explicit household control policy. In contrast, the emission reductions from power plants, industry, and transportation contributed much less to the decrease of integrated exposure. Clean household heating fuels have become part of recent control policies in northern China, but such policy would be strengthened if extended to heating and cooking countrywide since shift of the remaining household solid fuels to clean fuels could additionally avoid an estimated half-million premature deaths annually.

Household, community, sub-national and country-level predictors of primary cooking fuel switching in nine countries from the PURE study

“…The province-specific limits on coal consumption could potentially explain the high between-region variability in the China model (ICC region =0.56). These and other policies in China focused on outdoor air pollution may have led to increases in household use of clean fuels [69], an approach that may also yield dividends in India where emissions related to residential sources are also major contributors to ambient air pollution [17].…”

The influence of spatiality on shipping emissions, air quality and potential human exposure in the Yangtze River Delta/Shanghai, China

“…Several studies have investigated the contribution of shipping emissions to the ambient air quality using different methods. Zhao et al (2013) analyzed aerosol samples in Shanghai Port and reported that ship traffic contributed 0.63 to 3.58 µg m −3 (or 4.2 % to 12.8 %) of the total PM 2.5 in the port. Primary ship-emitted particles measured by an aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer were typically 1.0 % to 10.0 % of the measured particle number concentration, with the contribution rising to as high as 50.0 % in spring and summer (Z. .…”

Energy and air pollution benefits of household fuel policies in northern China

“…Moreover, use of solid fuels dominates rural household air pollution exposure, causing a significant disease burden in China (3). It was recently reported that decrease in PM 2.5 exposure and associated premature mortality in China from 2005 to 2015 was dominantly due to changes in household energy that came from urbanization and economic growth (9).…”