Health Impact Assessment of the Ambient PM2.5 Concentration in Mashhad, Iran, in 2013

Particulate Matter of air is one of the main sources of air pollution in urban areas that is generated usually from various sources such as vehicle exhaust, industrial combustion processes or secondary conversion of gaseous pollutants. It may cause respiratory, cardiovascular, and mortality diseases. The aim of this study was health impact assessment of PM2.5 concentration in air of Mashhad city, Iran, in 2013.
In this cross-sectional study, the effect of PM2.5 concentration on the health of the citizens of Mashhad was determined using AirQ 2-3-3. In this study, selected stations for measuring air pollution included Sadaf, Sajjad, Daneshgah and Khayam. The total number of data collected from the stations was 6995. Finally, using this model, the total number of deaths and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases attributable to PM2.5 were estimated.
Findings: The results showed that the cold season had the highest rate of pollution and in some cases the amount of PM2.5 has been more than the standard level.The results also showed that the total number of deaths, death from cardiovascular disease and death from respiratory disease were 331, 263, and 32, respectively.
It was concluded that for an accurate estimate of the relative risk, baseline incidence and attributable proportion, more comprehensive epidemiological studies should be done at the national level. In this case, more accurate values of theseindicators are obtained and mortality rate is calculated with a greater accuracy.