Health effects from particulate air pollution in one of the industrial cities of Iran

Particulate Matter (PM), also known as aerosol, is the sum of all particles suspended in droplets floating in the air, which can have harmful impacts on humans all over the world. This cross-sectional study set out to evaluate the potential health effects of over-exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 on aggravating mortality and hospitalization due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases among Arak citizens.

In this cross-sectional survey, AirQ+ model was used to estimate the health impacts of two particulate air pollutants (PM10 and PM2.5) based on Relative Risk (RR), and Baseline Incidence (BI) obtained from reference documents.

According to the calculations, the attributable proportion percentage (AP%) and attributable excess cases (persons) for total mortality from PM10 were 3.3% (95% CI, 2.8%-3.8%) in 2014 vs. 4.9% (95% CI, 4.1%-5.6%) in 2015 and 99 persons in 2014 vs. 148 persons in 2015, respectively. Likewise, the AP (%) and the number of excess cases (persons) calculated for total mortality from PM2.5 were 3.3% (95% CI, 2.6%-4.1%) in 2014 vs. 1.1% (95% CI, 0.8%-1.3%) in 2015 and 99 persons in 2014 vs. 33 persons in 2015, respectively.

In this study, it was found that dominant west winds could increase the particle matters produced from power plants, petrochemical plants, and western dust storm, leading to a surge in the mortality and morbidity related to particulate air pollutants in Arak.