Abstract
BackgroundGround-level ozone (O3) pollution is currently the one of the severe environmental problems in China. Although existing studies have quantified the O3-related health impact and economic loss, few have focused on the acute health effects of short-term exposure to O3 and have been limited to a single temporal and spatial dimension.MethodsBased on the O3 concentration obtained from ground monitoring networks in 334 Chinese cities in 2015–2018, this study used a two-stage exposure parameter weighted Log-linear exposure-response function to estimate the cause-specific mortality for short-term exposure to O3.ResultsThe value of statistical life (VSL) method that were used to calculate the economic loss at the city-level. Our results show that in China, the national all-cause mortality attributed to O3 was 0.27(95% CI: 0.14–0.55) to 0.39 (95% CI: 0.20–0.67) million across 2015–2018. The estimated economic loss caused by O3 was 387.76 (95% CI: 195.99–904.50) to 594.08 (95% CI: 303.34–1140.65) billion CNY, accounting for 0.52 to 0.69% of total reported GDP. Overall, the O3 attributed health and economic burden has begun to decline in China since 2017. However, highly polluted areas still face severe burden, and undeveloped areas suffer from high GDP losses.ConclusionsThere are substantial health impacts and economic losses related to short-term O3 exposure in China. The government should pay attention to the emerging ozone pollution, and continue to strengthen the intervention in traditional priority areas while solving the pollution problem in non-priority areas.
Highlights
Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution is currently the one of the severe environmental problems in China
There are substantial health impacts and economic losses related to short-term O3 exposure in China
It can be seen that the ozone concentration in the north was higher than that in the south, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the Pearl River Delta (PRD), the Chengdu-Chongqing city belt and the Central Plains city cluster were the major polluted areas
Summary
Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution is currently the one of the severe environmental problems in China. Ground-level ozone, as a secondary pollutant, is harmful to human health and crop yields. It is one of the six criteria air pollutants regulated by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency [1, 2]. From 2013 to 2017, the annual ozone concentration in China, the BTH, the YRD, the PRD region increased by 20.4, 29.9, 22.1 and 8.6% respectively, while gaseous pollutant such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide decreased by 12, 11 and 30% respectively during the same period in China [11]. Compared with Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, the magnitude and frequency of high-ozone events in China are much more significant [13]
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