Exposure Assessment for Estimation of the Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Outdoor Air Pollution

Abstract

Ambient air pollution is associated with numerous adverse health impacts. Previous assessments of global attributable disease burden have been limited to urban areas or by coarse spatial resolution of concentration estimates. Recent developments in remote sensing, global chemical-transport models, and improvements in coverage of surface measurements facilitate virtually complete spatially resolved global air pollutant concentration estimates. We combined these data to generate global estimates of long- term average ambient concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5) and ozone at 0.1° × 0.1° spatial resolution for 1990 and 2005. In 2005, 89% of the world’s population lived in areas where the World Health Organization Air Quality Guideline of 10 μg/m3 PM2.5 (annual average) was exceeded. Globally, 32% of the population lived in areas exceeding the WHO Level 1 Interim Target of 35 μg/m3; driven by high proportions in East (76%) and South (26%) Asia. The highest seasonal ozone levels were found in North and Latin America, Europe, South and East Asia, and parts of Africa. Between 1990 and 2005 a 6% increase in global population-weighted PM2.5 and a 1% decrease in global population- weighted ozone concentrations was apparent, highlighted by increased concentrations in East, South and Southeast Asia and decreases in North America and Europe. Combined with spatially resolved population distributions, these estimates expand the evaluation of the global health burden associated with outdoor air pollution.

Short-term effects of fine particulate matter pollution on daily health events in Latin America: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In our review, all Brazilian studies included estimated population exposure through satellite estimations. Sophisticated satellite-based estimates are a promising tool to overcome the scarcity of exposure data, given that correlation with ground-level PM 2.5 mass might reach 81% (Van Donkelaar et al 2016) and The Global Burden of Disease Study is already using satellite-based PM 2.5 estimates (Brauer et al 2012).…”

“…However, between 1990 and 2013, PM 2.5 annual mean level trends increased in parts of South America and decreased in parts of Southeast Asia (Brauer et al 2012).…”

“…Given the very high levels of PM 2.5 pollution in Africa, Asia and Middle East (Brauer et al 2012), air pollution in LA receives less attention in global analysis. However, between 1990 and 2013, PM 2.5 annual mean level trends increased in parts of South America and decreased in parts of Southeast Asia (Brauer et al 2012).…”

Applying land use regression model to estimate spatial variation of PM2.5 in Beijing, China

“…The annual average ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 , or particles up to 2.5 μm in diameter) concentrations in this city were measured at about 70-100 μg/m 3 (Cheng et al 2013a;Wang et al 2013), which were about two to three times higher than the WHO Level 1 Interim Target of 35 μg/ m 3 (WHO Press 2006). Globally, the city has been listed among the most PM 2.5 -polluted areas (Brauer et al 2012;Van Donkelaar et al 2010). Overexposure to PM 2.5 has been…”

Characterization of Subgrid-Scale Variability in Particulate Matter with Respect to Satellite Aerosol Observations

“…Satellite observations of AOD to estimate PM exposures provide more complete spatial and temporal coverage than fixed monitoring sites [20][21][22][23][24][25], but the existing methods using AOD are still limited to the resolution of the instrument's aerosol product retrieval algorithm. Fortunately, the spatial resolutions of satellite aerosol products have improved dramatically since their inception.…”