Modeled global effects of airborne desert dust on air quality and premature mortality

D Giannadaki,J Lelieveld,A Pozzer

doi:10.5194/acp-14-957-2014

Abstract

Abstract. Fine particulate matter is one of the most important factors contributing to air pollution. Epidemiological studies have related increased levels of atmospheric particulate matter to premature human mortality caused by cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer. However, a limited number of investigations have focused on the contribution of airborne desert dust particles. Here we assess the effects of dust particles with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm (DU2.5) on human mortality for the year 2005. We used the EMAC atmospheric–chemistry general circulation model at high resolution to simulate global atmospheric dust concentrations. We applied a health impact function to estimate premature mortality for the global population of 30 yr and older, using parameters from epidemiological studies. We estimate a global cardiopulmonary mortality of about 402 000 in 2005. The associated years of life lost are about 3.47 million per year. We estimate the global fraction of the cardiopulmonary deaths caused by atmospheric desert dust to be about 1.8%, though in the 20 countries most affected by dust this is much higher, about 15–50%. These countries are primarily found in the so-called "dust belt" from North Africa across the Middle East and South Asia to East Asia

Highlights

Increased levels of fine particles in the air from anthropogenic and natural origin show that air quality has decreased on regional and global scales (Akimoto, 2003; Gerasopoulos et al, 2006; IPCC, 2007; Anenberg et al, 2010; Van Donkelaar et al, 2010; EEA, 2012)
Where Mort is the change in annual mortality due to a pollutant, y0 the baseline mortality rate (BMR) for a given population, β the concentration–response function (CRF), X the change in concentration of a given pollutant X relative to clean conditions, and population variable (Pop) the total population with an age of 30 yr and older exposed to the pollutant
Applying the health impact function (Eq 1) for the population of 30 yr in age and older to our model output suggests a significant contribution of desert dust to premature human mortality

Summary

Introduction

Increased levels of fine particles in the air from anthropogenic and natural origin show that air quality has decreased on regional and global scales (Akimoto, 2003; Gerasopoulos et al, 2006; IPCC, 2007; Anenberg et al, 2010; Van Donkelaar et al, 2010; EEA, 2012). The long-term exposure to fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) is associated with adverse health impacts including an increased risk of premature mortality by cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer (Cohen et al, 2005; Krewski et al, 2009; Pope et al, 2009; Lepeule et al, 2012; Lim et al, 2012). Because of their small size PM2.5 particles can penetrate the deep parts of the lungs and the smallest ones even the alveoli, the gas exchange cavities of the lungs. In the atmosphere large amounts of desert dust can travel thousands kilometers from their sources, which represents one of the main natural contributions to airborne PM (Kojima et al, 2006; Mahowald et al, 2010; Ginoux et al, 2012)

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