An estimation of respiratory deaths and COPD related to SO2 pollutant in Tabriz, northwest of Iran (2011)

From human- made pollutants, SO2 has been widely studied. This research aims to estimate the respiratory deaths and COPD related to SO2 pollutant in 2011. Firstly, the concentration of SO2 pollutant was measured by GRIMM device in 2011 in five stations in Tabriz. The data were processed by Excel software and fed to AIR Q model. The result showed that the maximum concentration of pollution was in Namaz square station as 33.79 µg/m3 and the minimum was in Baghshomal station at 6.57 µg/m3. The results of model showed that in 2011, 13 cases of respiratory deaths in Tabriz were ascribed to SO2. The cumulative number of COPD related to SO2 was 9. The analysis and comparison of means and maximum concentration of SO2 in five stations in Tabriz during 24 hrs with air pollution index showed that there was no problem of air pollution in terms of SO2 in 2011. The relative risk of estimated medium limit with low certainty means an increase of 1% in respiratory death risk for each 10 µg/m3 increase of SO2 concentration. It is evident that for each increase of 10 µg/m3 in SO2 concentration, the risk of COPD increases 0.44%.