Health Impact Assessment of PM2.5 Pollutants on Humans (Over Ten Years) in Ahvaz City

The main subject of this study was health impact assessment (HIA) of all-cause mortality, ALRI, LC, COPD, and IHD attributed to PM2.5 exposure using the AirQ+ model in Ahvaz as one of the most polluted cities of the world from 2008 through 2017.

In this descriptive-ecological study, the data related to mortality and PM2.5 was taken from the health deputy of Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences and Environmental and Meteorological Organizations of Ahvaz. After validating the data according to WHO guidelines, they were entered into the AirQ+ software. Also, BI values in 100 thousand individuals and RR with 95% confidence intervals were used.

The highest concentration of PM2.5 was in 2010 (70.72 µg/m3) and the lowest in 2014 (41.97 µg/m3), which is higher than the WHO standard (10 µg/m3) in all years of measurement. There was a significant relationship between PM2.5 concentrations, ratio, and attributed cases in all health outcomes. So, with the increase of air pollution in Ahvaz city due to PM2.5 pollutants, mortality and risk of contracting these diseases increased.

Appropriate measures and policies should be adopted to reduce air pollution by controlling PM2.5 pollutant sources and reducing the health effects caused by this pollutant in urban residents.