title: Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations in Urban Chinese Cities, 2005-2016: A Systematic Review.
abstract: Background: Particulate matter pollution has become a growing health concern over the past few decades globally. The problem is especially evident in China, where particulate matter levels prior to 2013 are publically unavailable. We conducted a systematic review of scientific literature that reported fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in different regions of China from 2005 to 2016.Methods: We searched for English articles in PubMed and Embase and for Chinese articles in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). We evaluated the studies overall and categorized the collected data into six geographical regions and three economic regions.Results: The mean (SD) PM2.5concentration, weighted by the number of sampling days, was 60.64 (33.27) μg/m³ for all geographic regions and 71.99 (30.20) μg/m³ for all economic regions. A one-way ANOVA shows statistically significant differences in PM2.5concentrations between the various geographic regions (F = 14.91,p< 0.0001) and the three economic regions (F = 4.55,p= 0.01).Conclusions:This review identifies quantifiable differences in fine particulate matter concentrations across regions of China. The highest levels of fine particulate matter were found in the northern and northwestern regions and especially Beijing. The high percentage of data points exceeding current federal regulation standards suggests that fine particulate matter pollution remains a huge problem for China. As pre-2013 emissions data remain largely unavailable, we hope that the data aggregated from this systematic review can be incorporated into current and future models for more accurate historical PM2.5estimates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. zh2263@cumc.columbia.edu.|Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY 10032, USA. zh2263@cumc.columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Mike Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Program in Public Health Studies, Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. xzeng5@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Xiange
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu, China. m15195969591@163.com.|Yangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Yangzhou 225000, Jiangsu, China. m15195969591@163.com.
authors.forename: Kaiyue
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MD 02118, USA. pkinney@bu.edu.
authors.forename: Patrick L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Kinney
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000068476:Beijing; D002681:China; D002947:Cities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter
keywords: China; PM2.5; air pollution; ambient air; particulate matter; systematic review