Public Health Considerations for PM10 in a High-Pollution Megacity: Influences of Atmospheric Condition and Land Coverage

Abstract

This paper analyzes the PM10 concentrations and influences of atmospheric condition (AC) and land coverage (LC) on a high-pollution megacity (Bogota, Colombia) from a public health viewpoint. Information of monitoring stations equipped with measuring devices for PM10/temperature/solar-radiation/wind-speed were used. The research period lasted eight years (2007–2014). AC and LC were determined after comparing daily PM10 concentrations (DPM10) to reference limits published by the World Health Organization (WHO). ARIMA models for DPM10 were also developed. The results indicated that urban sectors with lower atmospheric instability (AI) had a 2.85% increase in daily mortality (DM) in relation to sectors with greater AI. In these sectors of lower AI, impervious LC predominated, instead of vegetated LC. An ARIMA analysis revealed that a greater extent of impervious LC around a station led to a greater effect on previous days’ DPM10 concentrations. Extreme PM10 episodes persisted for up to two days. Extreme pollution episodes were probably also preceded by low mixing-layer heights (between 722–1085 m). The findings showed a 13.0% increase in WHO standard excesses (PE) for each 10 µg/m3 increase in DPM10, and a 0.313% increase in DM for each 10% increase in PE. The observed average reduction of 14.8% in DPM10 (−0.79% in DM) was probably due to 40% restriction of the traffic at peak hours.

Intervention analysis with autoregressive integrated moving average models for time series of urban air pollutants

“…This differential behavior between the south and north in relation to PM concentrations may be associated with the local behavior of climate variables such as wind speed and direction, and relative humidity. For example, it was reported that the northern zone of the megacity historically showed the highest wind speeds [4]. In the case of O3 and SO2 concentrations, differences in the moving average term between nearby monitoring stations were observed ('q' between 1 month -18 months).…”

“…Each territory has a unique atmospheric dynamic due to its particular meteorological and orography conditions, and that is why it is necessary to study in a differentiated way the regulatory interventions in favor of urban air quality [4]. In this particular case of atmospheric physics, regulatory intervention is interpreted as the occurrence of an exogenous and induced event to the historical behavior of air quality variables [5].…”

Spatial Analysis of Heavy Metal Pollution in Road-Deposited Sediments Based on the Traffic Intensity of a Megacity

“…During the study period, there was a restriction on the circulation of vehicles in the megacity as a measure to reduce traffic congestion. This vehicular restriction prevented about 40% of the passenger cars of the megacity from circulating (between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 7 p.m.) [45].…”

Relación entre material particulado, variables meteorológicas e infecciones respiratorias agudas en la zona norte de Ocaña

“…Asimismo, la concentración de material particulado PM10 y PM2.5 es una de las principales causas de este tipo de problemas (Sosa et al, 2017;Mukherjee y Agrawal, 2017), siendo los niños los más afectados (Mahapatra et al, 2020;Manisalidis et al, 2020) A nivel mundial, las infecciones respiratorias agudas (IRA) se encuentran entre los principales problemas de salud pública (Soriano et al, 2020), mientras que las emisiones de partículas por fuentes móviles son uno de los principales problemas Área Ambiental de calidad del aire (Pineda, 2018). En Colombia, particularmente en las ciudades de Bogotá (Colla et al, 2021;Mangones et al, 2020;Zafra et al, 2021) y Medellín (Gil et al, 2020;Hernández et al, 2020), se registran correlaciones significativas del PM2.5 con las muertes de tipo cardiovascular y pulmonar. De lo mencionado se destaca que, en la mayoría de los casos, los estudios sobre los efectos del material particulado se concentran en las grandes ciudades de Colombia sin tener en cuenta que las ciudades intermedias pueden presentar efectos iguales (Rodríguez, 2018).…”