title: Burden of disease attributable to air pollutants from municipal solid waste incinerators in Seoul, Korea: a source-specific approach for environmental burden of disease.
abstract: Few studies have attempted to quantify the integrated health burden, incorporating both mortality and morbidity as these factors pertain to air pollutants, on the population in the vicinity of the incinerators. The aims of this study are to estimate the attributable burden of disease caused by incinerators in Seoul, Korea and to present an approach based on source-specific exposure for the estimation of the environmental burden of disease (EBD). With particular attention on the development of a measurement means of the source-specific, exposure-based population attributable fraction (PAF), we integrated air dispersion modeling, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the population distribution of exposure, and the exposure-response relationship. We then estimated the PAFs caused by additional concentrations of four air pollutants (PM(10), NO(2,) SO(2), and CO) emitted from four municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) in Seoul in 2007. We, finally, estimated the attributable burden of disease, using the estimated PAF and the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) method developed by the Global Burden of Disease Group of the World Health Organization (WHO). The PAF for NO(2) to all-cause mortality was assessed at approximately 0.02% (95% CI: 0.003-0.036%), which was the highest among all air pollutants. The PAFs for respiratory and cardiovascular disease were 0.12% (95% CI: 0.01-0.16%) and 0.10% (95% CI: 0.04-0.16%), respectively. The sum of the attributable burden of disease for four pollutants was about 297 person-years (PYs) (95% CI: 121-472 PYs) when the incinerators observed to the emission standards. The attributable burdens of respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease were about 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, of the total burden of respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease of Seoul citizens for the year 2007. Although the air emissions from one risk factor, an incinerator, are small, the burden of disease can be significant to the public health when population exposure is considered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea. kym6706@hanmail.net
authors.forename: Young-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jung-Wk
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun-Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000032:analysis; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D002947:Cities; D003710:Demography; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D017745:Incineration; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D013458:Sulfur Dioxide / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter; D013458:Sulfur Dioxide; D002248:Carbon Monoxide; D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide