The association of meteorological parameters and AirQ+ health risk assessment of PM2.5 in Ratchaburi province, Thailand

Abstract

Air quality is heavily influenced by rising pollution distribution levels which are a consequence of many artificial activities from numerous sources. This study aims to determine the relationship between meteorological data and air pollutants. The health effects of long-term PM2.5 were estimated on expected life remaining (ELR) and years of life lost (YLL) indices in Ratchaburi province during the years 2015–2019 using AirQ+ software. Values obtained from the PM2.5 averaging, and YLL data were processed for the whole population in the age range of 0–29, 30–60 and over 60. These values were entered into AirQ+ software. The mean annual concentration of PM2.5 was highly variable, with the highest concentration being 136.42 μg/m3 and the lowest being 2.33 μg/m3. The results estimated that the highest and lowest YLL in the next 10 years for all age groups would be 24,970.60 and 11,484.50 in 2017 and 2019, respectively. The number of deaths due to COPD, IHD, and stroke related to long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 were 125, 27 and 26, respectively. The results showed that older people (> 64) had a higher YLL index than the groups aged under 64 years. The highest and lowest values for all ages were 307.15 (2015) and 159 (2017). Thus, this study demonstrated that the PM2.5 effect to all age groups, especially the the elderly people, which the policy level should be awared and fomulated the stratergies to protecting the sensitive group.

Health Risk Assessment of Exposure to Air Pollutants Exceeding the New WHO Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) in São Paulo, Brazil

“…Other studies also evaluated the health effects caused by exposure to pollutants in different parts of the world using AirQ+ [31,[50][51][52][53][54]. Kliengchuay et al [50] reported 125, 27, and 26 deaths caused by COPD, IHD, and stroke due to long-term exposure to PM 2.5 in Ratchaburi, Thailand, where the annual mean was 26.9 ± 18.7 µg m −3 .…”

“…Other studies also evaluated the health effects caused by exposure to pollutants in different parts of the world using AirQ+ [31,[50][51][52][53][54]. Kliengchuay et al [50] reported 125, 27, and 26 deaths caused by COPD, IHD, and stroke due to long-term exposure to PM 2.5 in Ratchaburi, Thailand, where the annual mean was 26.9 ± 18.7 µg m −3 . The estimated number of premature deaths in Tehran, Iran, varied from 397 to 419 for IHD and from 86 to 102 for LC between 2016 and 2018, with mean PM 2.5 concentrations from 29.4 ± 16.1 to 31.6 ± 16.2 µg m −3 [51].…”