ESTIMATING HEALTH IMPACT OF EXPOSURE TO PM2.5, NO2 AND O3 USING AIRQ plus MODEL IN KERMAN, IRAN

Air pollutants have harmful effects on the human health and exacerbate morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to assess the short-and long-term effects of the suspended particulate matter with the diameter of smaller than 2.5 mu m (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O-3) on the mortality cases in city of Kerman in 2016 and 2017. In this study, AirQ+ software presented by European Center for Environment and Health and World Health Organization (WHO) was employed. Daily mean concentration of PM2.5, mean hourly concentration of NO2, and maximum 8-h O-3 concentration were used to assess the health impact of human exposure to these pollutants. The mean concentration of PM2.5, NO2, and O-3 in the studied years was higher than the WHO guideline and the mean concentration of NO2 and O-3 was less than the WHO guideline. In the short-term health impact assessment, the death caused by stroke in individuals above 25 years old due to 03 had the highest attributable proportion with 2.48% in 2016 and 2.39% in 2017.Also, in the long-term health impact assessment, the highest attributable proportion for natural death caused by PM2.5 was 15.24% in 2016 and 15.15% in 2017. In general, exposure to air pollutants is a risk factor; therefore, the implementation of sustainable control policies including population growth, urbanization, and traffic control is suggested to avoid the health impacts and economic damages.