Long-term mortality benefits of air quality improvement during the twelfth five-year-plan period in 31 provincial capital cities of China

PM2.5-Related Health Economic Benefits Evaluation Based on Air Improvement Action Plan in Wuhan City, Middle China

“…On the one hand, we found that although PM 2.5 concentrations have declined from 2013 to 2017, the baseline all-cause mortality rates in Wuhan have not declined during the same period [22]. Other studies showed similar results [46,48,51]. Perhaps the number of people who immigrated to Wuhan and became the registered population in 2017 had an obvious impact on the city's population structure (http://www.whzc.gov.cn/html/2017-07/61.html)---this may have an impact on all-cause mortality (Table S8).…”

“…When evaluating the health benefits for controlling air pollution, one of the most important differences lies in the choice of control scenarios. Some scholars chose the ambient air quality standards (or a threshold value that does not produce health effects, or a concentration value at the clean level), others have simulated the pollutant concentrations as a control scenario on the basis of the assumed policy scenario, and others still used the actual concentrations of the evaluation years as a control scenario [10,16,[46][47][48]. For example, Wu et al took the target value of the first phase of the WHO interim target-1 (that is, China's second-level environmental air quality standards, 35 µg/m 3 ) as the control scenario to estimate premature deaths in China in 2013 and 2017, then subtracted the results of 2013 from the results of 2017 to obtain the number of premature deaths that could have been prevented by the implementation of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (2013-2017) [16].…”

“…This method could help to provide an overall estimation in the number of PM 2.5 -related avoided premature deaths in 2017 due to the Air Improvement Action Plan in Wuhan (2013-2017), and will avoid misunderstandings of the pathophysiological effects of air quality, as well as biases on short-term and long-term health impacts. In addition, Liu et al divided 2010-2015 into five periods (2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015) to evaluate the long-term health benefits of air quality improvement in China [46]. We employed a similar annual estimation method to calculate the health economic benefits since the implementation of the Air Improvement Action Plan in Wuhan-results are shown in Table S6 and Figure S2.…”

Health impact of China's Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan: an analysis of national air quality monitoring and mortality data

“…Promulgation of the APPCAP in China therefore offered an excellent opportunity to evaluate the effects of long-term air quality management and the related health impacts at the national level. Compared with previous studies that focused on a single city, 14,15 one key region, 16 or only a few kinds of air pollutants, 17,18 or those that were based on hypothetical data, 19 our study provides, for the first time, a comprehensive assessment of the health impacts of long-term air pollution control policy in China based on the national air quality monitoring and mortality data. The problem of air pollution alongside economic expansion seems inevitable.…”

“…Although several previous studies have assessed the health benefits of air quality improvement in China, most have focused on the short-term effects, or on a single city or one key region; [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] limited long-term evaluations assessed only several types of air pollutants 17,18 or were based on hypothetical data. 19 To our knowledge, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the long-term impact of air pollution control at the national level in China.…”