Using AirQ+ Software to Predict Mortality Attributed to PM2.5 in the Air of Mashhad in 2019

Assessing the health effects of air pollution can provide useful information for health policy . AirQ + software is a tool for determining and modeling the health effects attributed to air pollutants such as O3, NO2, PM10 and PM2.5. The aim of this study was to quantify the health effects of PM2.5 pollutants in the air of Mashhad.

In order to present this analytical study, air quality data were obtained in 2019 from the General Department of Environment of the province and the Environmental Pollutants Monitoring Center of Mashhad Municipality. Hourly data of each validated station and stations that less than 75% of the data were not registered or were not valid were eliminate. Demographic and meteorological information were also obtained from relevant organizations. AirQ + software was used to quantify the health effects of suspended particles. The desired cut-off concentration was 10 μg / m3 according to WHO guidelines.

The results show that the total death rate attributed to PM2.5 in 2019 was about 1069 cases, which is about 9.5% of the total deaths in Mashhad. In the long term exposure, the rate of premature death attributed to PM2.5 due to COPD in that year was about 14%, due to cancer about 12%, due to IHD about 6% and due to stroke about 8% of the total deaths in Mashhad in the upper25 years old population.

Among air pollutants, PM2.5 due to its special structure composition can be one of the risk factors for public health. This study does not consider the synergistic effects of air pollutants, which is due to the lack of studies worldwide. If the synergistic effects of pollutants are taken into account, the rate of deaths attributed to air pollution could be much higher than currently estimated.