Abstract
Rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries have caused an increase in air pollutant concentrations, and this has attracted public concern due to the resulting harmful effects to health. Here we present, through the spatial-temporal characteristics of six criteria air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3) in Sichuan, a human health risk assessment framework conducted to evaluate the health risk of different age groups caused by ambient air pollutants. Public health resilience was evaluated with respect to the risk resulting from ambient air pollutants, and a spatial inequality analysis between the risk caused by ambient air pollutants and hospital density in Sichuan was performed based on the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient. The results indicated that high concentrations of PM2.5 (47.7 μg m−3) and PM10 (75.9 μg m−3) were observed in the Sichuan Basin; these two air pollutants posed a high risk to infants. The high risk caused by PM2.5 was mainly distributed in Sichuan Basin (1.14) and that caused by PM10 was principally distributed in Zigong (1.01). Additionally, the infants in Aba and Ganzi had high health resilience to the risk caused by PM2.5 (3.89 and 4.79, respectively) and PM10 (3.28 and 2.77, respectively), which was explained by the low risk in these two regions. These regions and Sichuan had severe spatial inequality between the infant hazard quotient caused by PM2.5 (G = 0.518, G = 0.493, and G = 0.456, respectively) and hospital density. This spatial inequality was also caused by PM10 (G = 0.525, G = 0.526, and G = 0.466, respectively), which is mainly attributed to the imbalance between hospital distribution and risk caused by PM2.5 (PM10) in these two areas. Such research could provide a basis for the formulation of medical construction and future air pollution control measures in Sichuan.
Highlights
Air pollution is principally formed by a multifaceted mix of gaseous pollutants and suspended particulates [1], which affects atmospheric emission, absorption, and scattering of light
According to the spatial distribution of six criteria air pollutants in Sichuan from spring to According to the spatial distribution of six criteria air pollutants in Sichuan from spring to winter winter (Figure 3), we discovered that the PM2.5 and PM10 have the same pattern, with the maximum (Figure 3), we discovered that the PM2.5 and PM10 have the same pattern, with the maximum distribution in Sichuan Basin, and the minimum distribution in the northwest part of Sichuan distribution in Sichuan Basin, and the minimum distribution in the northwest part of Sichuan (Figure (Figure 3a–h)
Our study focused on the spatial-temporal characteristics of air pollutants and the public health risk and resilience assessment with respect to the main air pollutants
Summary
Air pollution is principally formed by a multifaceted mix of gaseous pollutants and suspended particulates [1], which affects atmospheric emission, absorption, and scattering of light. Recent research has reported that 3.7 million deaths due to exposure to outdoor air pollution in 2012. The number of deaths caused by ambient air pollutants is continuously rising, and will become the main environmental issue causing premature death by 2050 [2]. The continuous increase in human activities, such as urbanization and modernization, industrialization, human population, traffic density, and the number of motor vehicles, are the major contributors to the rising ambient air quality problems [3]. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2796; doi:10.3390/ijerph16152796 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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