Effects of ambient ozone on daily mortality in a suburban district, Beijing

Abstract

Background/Aim To understand the effects of ambient ozone on daily mortality in suburban area in China. Methods Data on air pollution, mortality and meteorology in Shunyi District were collected from Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2016. Generalized additive model (GAM) was applied to evaluate the association between ambient ozone and daily mortality. Results The average level was 111.8μg/m3 for O3.1h-max, 94.6μg/m3 for O3.8h-max and 54.8μg/m3 for O3.24h. Daily non-accidental mortality increased by 0.59% (95%CI:0.28%-0.91%), 0.64%(95%CI:0.22%-1.06%) and 0.95%(95% CI:0.28%-1.62%) with 10 μg/m3 increases of O3.1h-max, O3.8h-max and O3.24h concentrations(lag1) , respectively. Which were higher than those of in large and medium-sized cities in China. The increase of 10 μg/m3 in O3.1h-max were significantly associated with 0.56%(95%CI:0.14%-0.97%) increasing for daily mortality caused by circulatory system diseases, 0.87%(95%CI:0.25%-1.48%) for cardiovascular diseases and 0.84%(95%CI:0.22%-1.47%) for ischemic heart disease, respectively. Effects of O3.8h-max and O3.24h on daily mortality caused by above diseases were similar with O3.1h-max without significance. The increases of 10 μg/m3 in the level of O3.1h-max, O3.8h-max and O3.24h were responsible for 0.33%, 0.29% and 0.16% increases in daily mortality caused by cerebrovascular diseases, respectively, with no significance. Daily mortality caused by cerebrovascular diseases showed lower risk to ambient ozone compared with that caused by cardiovascular diseases. Conclusions The risks of ambient O3 in Shunyi District were very similar with those in large or medium-sized cities. Mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases suffered higher risk to ozone than that by cerebrovascular diseases. For the studies of effects on daily mortality, O3.1h-max as an indicator was more sensitive compared with O3.8h-max and O3.24h.