Long-term trend and spatial pattern of PM2.5induced premature mortality in China.
With rapid economic growth, China has witnessed increasingly frequent and severe haze and smog episodes over the past decade, posing serious health impacts to the Chinese population, especially those in densely populated city clusters. Quantification of the spatial and temporal variation of health impacts attributable to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has important implications for China's policies on air pollution control. In this study, we evaluated the spatial distribution of premature deaths in China between 2000 and 2010 attributable to ambient PM2.5in accord with the Global Burden of Disease based on a high resolution population density map of China, satellite retrieved PM2.5concentrations, and provincial health data. Our results suggest that China's anthropogenic ambient PM2.5led to 1,255,400 premature deaths in 2010, 42% higher than the level in 2000. Besides increased PM2.5concentration, rapid urbanization has attracted large population migration into the more developed eastern coastal urban areas, intensifying the overall health impact. In addition, our analysis implies that health burdens were exacerbated in some developing inner provinces with high population density (e.g. Henan, Anhui, Sichuan) because of the relocation of more polluting and resource-intensive industries into these regions. In order to avoid such national level environmental inequities, China's regulations on PM2.5should not be loosened in inner provinces. Furthermore policies should create incentive mechanisms that can promote transfer of advanced production and emissions control technologies from the coastal regions to the interior regions.
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, PR China.
Rong
R
Xie
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK.
Clive E
CE
Sabel
School of Environment and State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, P.R. China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex, Beijing 100084, PR China.
Xi
X
Lu
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, PR China.
Weimo
W
Zhu
School of Public Health, Key Lab of Public Health Safety of the Ministry of Education and Key Lab of Health Technology Assessment of the Ministry of Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
Haidong
H
Kan
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Chris P
CP
Nielsen
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, PR China. Electronic address: wanghk@nju.edu.cn.
Haikun
H
Wang
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002947:Cities; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D061213:Mortality, Premature / Q000639:trends*; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000633:toxicity*; D014507:Urbanization
D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter
Air pollution; China; Fine particulate matter; Public health; Urbanization