Abstract
Despite low concentrations of aerosols and precursors of surface ozone in Japan compared with other countries in East Asia, concentrations of surface ozone there are yearly increasing and endangering the environment. The aim of this study was to examine whether transboundary air pollution from neighboring countries such as China could be associated with this increase or not. Data on the 1–hr daytime and maximum–hr concentrations of surface ozone were obtained from 1,183 monitors distributed in 47 prefectures. Annual means of these concentrations were calculated for all districts that are located along the Sea of Japan since these districts are the first receptors of transboundary air pollution from neighboring countries. We found that the annual mean of the 1–hr daytime and maximum–hr concentrations of surface ozone are positively associated with the annual increase of the industrial waste gas emissions in China from 2000 to 2009. This finding suggests that the industrial emissions from China could be associated with the annual increase surface ozone concentrations in Japan. However, limited spatiotemporal information about the emissions of surface ozone and its precursors in China makes it hard to quantify the contribution percentage.
Highlights
Surface ozone is becoming a rising threat to human health and crops and a major concern all around the world [1-7]
Rice crop, which is the main crop in Japan, is likely to be affected by surface ozone as it can be estimated based on AOT40 index [7]
Significant positive correlation coefficient was observed between these concentrations and annual increase of industrial waste gas emissions in China from 2000 to 2009 as shown in Table 2 and Figure 5
Summary
Surface ozone is becoming a rising threat to human health and crops and a major concern all around the world [1-7]. The formed surface ozone from pollution sources, which remains suspended for several hours and can travel long distances, endangers local and regional receptors, and exposes human health to recognized adverse effects [814]. Yamazaki et al, [19,20] found that the odds ratio (OR) in warmer months per 10 ppb increment in 24–hr mean concentration of surface ozone was 1.25 (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.87–1.82), and the association between ozone concentrations and asthma admissions for the preschool age group (2–5 years) was stronger than the age group of 6–14 years. Rice crop, which is the main crop in Japan, is likely to be affected by surface ozone as it can be estimated based on AOT40 index (accumulated exposure over a threshold of 40 ppb calculated for three months during the growing season) [7]
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