Risk of air pollution on daily mortality in a suburban district is different from a urban district

Abstract

Background/Aim Almost all studies on the effect of air pollution on mortality in China focus on large or medium-sized cities. There was rarely report for suburban areas. However, there were enormous differences between them, including green space, per capita disposable income, density of population, coal consumption and education years. This will affect or modify the risk of mortality. In order to find a clue for further research, we tend to compare the effect of air pollution on daily mortality between urban and suburban populations. Methods A suburban district(Shunyi) and a urban district(Chaoyang) in Beijing was selected. Data on mortality, air pollution and weather were collected from 2012 to 2016, and ecological environment and social-economy in 2016. The GAM was applied to established model. Results The air quality was very similar in two districts. The levels of PM2.5, PM10 and O3max-1h were 81.1ug/m3, 101.1ug/m3, 111.8ug/m3 in Shunyi, and 83.6ug/m3, 113.2ug/m3, 111.1ug/m3 in Chaoyang. For every 10μg/m3 PM2.5 increasing non-accidental mortality and mortality caused by cardiovascular disease increased by 0.56% and 0.60% in Shunyi, which were 2.24 and 2.00 times as in Chaoyang. Meanwhile every 10μg/m3 PM10 increasing was associated with increase of 0.48% for non-accidental mortality and 0.52% mortality caused by cardiovascular disease in Shunyi, which were 2.00 and 2.20 times as in Chaoyang. Corresponding risks for ozone were very similar. The increase for non-accidental mortality were 0.59% in Shunyi and 0.52% in Chaoyang with 10μg/m3 increase, while mortality caused by cardiovascular disease increased by 0.56% and 0.67%. Conclusions The risks of ambient particles on non-accidental mortality and mortality caused by cardiovascular disease were great different between suburban and urban populations, while these of ozone were similar. All suggested that we should pay more attention to the study on rural population.