Assessment of Air Quality Index and Health Impact of PM10, PM2.5 and SO2 in Yazd, Iran

In the past two decades, epidemiological studies have shown that outdoor air pollution lead to increase in respiratory symptoms, cardiovascular diseases, chronic bronchitis and mortality. This study aimed to estimate AQI index and the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and premature mortality caused by PM10, PM2.5 and SO2 in Yazd, 2013-2014.

In this ecological-descriptive study the air quality was assessed using AQI index. The health impact assessment of PM10, PM2.5 and SO2 was obtained by AirQ software.

According to the results, PM10 was the main cause of hospital admissions (n=460) and premature death (n=283) while SO2 was observed as the least effective pollutant involving 0.29% hospitalization and 9 premature death. The days with unhealthy air quality (AQI >100) was estimated less than 10 percent per year. The highest values of AQI were observed in spring and summer. PM10 was responsible for high AQI in 11 months and O3 was only responsible in first week of April.

The AirQ showed high rates of premature death, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases associated with PM10 and PM2.5 in Yazd. Unhealthy air quality in some days could be due to fuel combustion, wind, dust, and air dryness.