Effects Of Air Pollution On Residents' Health In Jinan

Air pollution is a persistent concern in cities of China,with more than half residents living in serious air pollution areas.It is approved that the raise of air pollutant concentration was related to the increase of a series of diseases and deaths of city inhabitants,such as more symptoms of respiratory system;reduction of pulmonary function,increase of emergency patients and inpatients;increase of chronic bronchitis;raise of long-term or short-term death rate,etc.However,these kind of studies are still rare in China,thus more such research are needed,especially on dose-response function which can reflectThe research period is from 2002 to 2005,amounts to 1461 days in a district of Jinan.Data about three regular pollutants,PM₁₀,SO₂ and NO₂,measured by region environmental monitoring net,were obtained.During the four years,there were 38751 patients in respiratory admission,of which 21018 were male and 17733 female.Results showed that,air pollutants concentration in Jinan had weak relationship with respiratory hospital visits.The best lag days for PM₁₀,SO₂ and NO₂ were current day(lag0),average moving within 0-3 days(avg03)and 3 day later(lag3).Three days' concentration had the most remarkable effect on human health.Within the best lag days,PM₁₀,SO₂ and NO₂ were all associated with increased risk of respiratory hospital visits,0.38%(95%confidence interval(CI):0.24%-0.53%)increased for a 10μg/m³ increase in PM₁₀,1.48%(95%CI:1.24%-1.72%)increase of respiratory hospital visits for a 10μg/m³ increase in SO₂ and 0.77%(95%CI:0.36%-1.18%)for a 10μg/m³ increase in NO₂ were observed.PM₁₀concentration was high in the air of Jinan city,which mainly came from city dusts and soil wind sand dusts with weak toxicity.Those effects on respiratory health were less than those of the majority of the developed areas and countries.Compared to the same research of the developed countries,the effect of SO₂ was a little higher than NO₂ and PM₁₀.Female were more susceptible than the male to certain changes of pollutant level.Under high pollutant concentration,the effect of each pollutant on respiratory health became weak.If the air pollutants of Jinan city reach the standard of China City Residential Area Ambient Air Quality,a decrease 1.55%(95%CI:0.98%-2.17%)of the respiratory disease admissions will take place.When it reaches much stricter WHO standard,a 10% decrease in hospital admission will be observed. Human health losses caused by urban air pollution were analyzed with economic theory by referring to related achievements which were made by scholars.Based on dose-response function,economic losses were achieved with Cost of Illness and Willingness to pay methods.Results showed that 0.149 million people were affected by air pollution.Air pollution related economic losses of health effects in urban areas of Jinan were 0.995 to 2.035 billion Yuan using WTP method(account 0.53%to 1.08%of GDP),and 0.381 to 0.802 billion Yuan using AHC method(account 0.20% to 0.43%of GDP).Research indicated that there was no threshold concentration for PM₁₀under which no health effects would be observed.These means that attention only pays on those seriously polluted days control was not enough,and a more stringent air quality guideline will protect residents' health.