Which Indian Metropolitan City Poses Highest Human Health Risk From Ambient PM 2.5 ?

Abstract

Ambient PM 2.5 can cause far-reaching health effects in humans. Indian cities routinely experience much higher PM 2.5 concentrations than the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standards and World Health Organization standards throughout the year. The objective of the this study is to estimate the short-term and long-term health effects of PM 2.5 in Indian metropolitan cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai for the years 2019 and 2020. The years are chosen to evaluate whether the COVID-induced lockdown had any effect on the mortalities and morbidities associated with ambient PM 2.5 . Health risks were assessed using WHO’s AirQ+ v2.0 software. All-cause (natural) mortality (ACNM) and mortality from acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), ischaemic heart disease (IHD), lung cancer (LC), cerebrovascular disease (Stroke), and all-cause morbidity natural (ACM) and morbidity from cardiovascular disease(CVD) and respiratory disease (RD) were assessed. The annual mean PM 2.5 concentration in all selected cities was higher than the standards of WHO (10 μgm -3 ) throughout 2019 and 2020. The excess number of long-term and short-term effects cases were found to be highest in Delhi for both years, which is 31592and 28688 for ACNM, 284 and 271 for ALRI, 2825 and 2674 for COPD, 3541 and 3309 for LC, 11525 and 11101 for IHD, 11082 and 10557 for Stroke and 28704 and 24643 for ACM, 1153 and 983 for CVD, 6858 and 5862 for RD for 2019 and 2020 respectively.