Achieving the WHO Air Quality Guidelines brings benefits to the health and economy of Member States across the Western Pacific Region

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM Air pollution continues to greatly burden population heath worldwide, and this burden is over-represented in the Western Pacific Region (WPR). As a risk communication exercise, we quantified the number of avoidable annual deaths and associated economic impact among WHO WPR Member States by meeting current (2021) WHO Air Quality Guideline (AQG) ambient annual concentration levels for fine particulate matter (PM2.5: 5 µg/m3). METHODS We performed a health impact assessment comparing latest (factual) and 2021 WHO AQG (counter-factual) PM2.5 levels among individual Member States, using AirQ+ (v.2.1.1). PM2.5 data was obtained from the WHO Global Health Observatory platform for the latest annual estimate available (2016). Population and all-cause mortality (standardized to 100,000 population) data were obtained from the UN World Population Prospects database for the latest 5-year period available (2015-2019) averaged to 1-year (annual) estimates. Global meta-analyses provided mortality risk estimates (all-cause: Chen & Hoek, 2020) and integrated exposure-response functions (COPD, lung cancer: Burnett et al., 2018) within AirQ+. Our economic evaluation used World Bank values of statistical life adjusted to Member-State-specific Gross Domestic Product in United States Dollars (US$). RESULTS Data was complete for 21 of 27 Member States. Amongst those 21, achieving the 2021 WHO AQG for PM2.5 avoids an estimated total of 3.1 million premature deaths annually; ranging from 2094 (People’s Republic of China) to 5 (Brunei Darussalam) per 100,000 population. COPD and lung cancer exposure-response functions gave generally higher and lower estimates, respectively. Total avoidable deaths translated to economic savings ranging from 583 (Singapore) to 14 (Solomon Islands) million US$ per 100,000 population. CONCLUSIONS Implementing effective policy and regulations to reduce PM2.5 emissions and exposure, meeting current WHO AQG, is essential to save thousands of lives and millions of US$ across the WPR. KEYWORDS air quality guidelines; PM2.5; health impact assessment; mortality; Western Pacific