Characterization of Fine Particulate Matter and Associated Health Burden in Nanjing

Particulate matter (PM) air pollution has become a serious environmental problem in Nanjing and poses great health risks to local residents. In this study, characteristics of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) over Nanjing were analyzed using hourly and daily averaged PM(2.5) concentrations and meteorological parameters collected from nine national monitoring sites during the period of March 2014 to February 2017. Then, the integrated exposure-response (IER) model was applied to assess premature mortality, years of life lost (YLL) attributable to PM(2.5), and mortality benefits due to PM(2.5) reductions. The concentrations of PM(2.5) varied among hours, seasons and years, which can be explained by differences in emission sources, secondary formations and meteorological conditions. The decreased ratio of PM(2.5) to CO suggested that secondary contributions decreased while the relative contributions of vehicle exhaust increased from increased CO data. According to the values of attributable fractions (AF), stroke was the major cause of death, followed by ischemic heart disease (IHD), lung cancer (LC) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The estimated total deaths in Nanjing due to PM(2.5) were 12,055 and 10,771, leading to 98,802 and 87,647 years of life lost in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The elderly and males had higher health risks than youngsters and females. When the PM(2.5) concentrations meet the World Health Organization (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) of 10 μg/m(3), 84% of the premature deaths would be avoided, indicating that the Nanjing government needs to adopt more stringent measure to reduce PM pollution and enhance the health benefits.