Assessment of the effects of straw burning bans in China: Emissions, air quality, and health impacts

Abstract

Open biomass burning (OBB) plays an important role in air pollution and climate change by releasing short-term but intensive amounts of particulate matter and gaseous air pollutants. During past years, policies with respect to prohibition on open straw burning have been issued in China in order to mitigate the air pollution problems and the effectiveness of these straw burning bans in different regions remains to be evaluated. In this study, open crop straw burning (OCSB) emissions during 2010–2018 were analyzed based on a commonly used emission inventory with high spatial and temporal resolution. High emissions concentrated over Northeast China (31.8% of national total PM2.5 emissions in 2018), East China (24.0%), and North China (16.6%). Simulations based on an integrated meteorology-air quality modeling system and an exposure-response function show that OCSB emissions could increase monthly PM2.5 concentration by as much as 10 μg/m3 during burning seasons in Northeast China and were associated with 4741 premature deaths in 2018. Spatial heterogeneities were observed with respect to the trends of OCSB emissions during 2010–2018. In East China, North China, and Central China, OCSB emissions showed a general declining trend since 2013 while an opposing increasing trend was observed in Northeast China with peak emissions in 2017. Comparing 2013 (before intensive implementation of straw burning bans) and 2018 (after), national total PM2.5 emissions from OCSB activities decreased by 46.9%, ranging from −14.1% to +70% depending on the specific regions. Northeast China is the only region that showed higher OCSB emissions in 2018 compared to 2013, probably associated with the relatively delayed implementation of the straw burning bans. Avoided number of premature deaths due to reduced OCSB emissions was estimated to be 4256 on a national scale, with most health benefits gained in East and Central China. Results from this study demonstrate the importance of OCSB contribution to PM2.5 concentrations and spatial heterogeneities exist in terms of the effectiveness of the straw burning bans in reducing OCSB emissions and gained health benefits.