title: Finely Resolved On-Road PM2.5and Estimated Premature Mortality in Central North Carolina.
abstract: To quantify the on-road PM2.5-related premature mortality at a national scale, previous approaches to estimate concentrations at a 12-km × 12-km or larger grid cell resolution may not fully characterize concentration hotspots that occur near roadways and thus the areas of highest risk. Spatially resolved concentration estimates from on-road emissions to capture these hotspots may improve characterization of the associated risk, but are rarely used for estimating premature mortality. In this study, we compared the on-road PM2.5-related premature mortality in central North Carolina with two different concentration estimation approaches-(i) using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to model concentration at a coarser resolution of a 36-km × 36-km grid resolution, and (ii) using a hybrid of a Gaussian dispersion model, CMAQ, and a space-time interpolation technique to provide annual average PM2.5concentrations at a Census-block level (∼105,000 Census blocks). The hybrid modeling approach estimated 24% more on-road PM2.5-related premature mortality than CMAQ. The major difference is from the primary on-road PM2.5where the hybrid approach estimated 2.5 times more primary on-road PM2.5-related premature mortality than CMAQ due to predicted exposure hotspots near roadways that coincide with high population areas. The results show that 72% of primary on-road PM2.5premature mortality occurs within 1,000 m from roadways where 50% of the total population resides, highlighting the importance to characterize near-road primary PM2.5and suggesting that previous studies may have underestimated premature mortality due to PM2.5from traffic-related emissions.
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Shih Ying
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vizuete
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Serre
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Lakshmi Pradeepa
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Vennam
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Omary
authors.affiliation: National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Vlad
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Isakov
authors.affiliation: National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Breen
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Saravanan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arunachalam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D062489:Health Impact Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D061213:Mortality, Premature; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D052638:Particulate Matter; D001335:Vehicle Emissions
keywords: Air pollution; PM2.5; R-LINE; fine-resolution modeling; traffic-related mortality