Estimation of Human Exposure and Environment Burden of Disease Caused by PM2.5 Pollution in Beijing, China

Abstract

Air pollution is a worldwide problem, especially for China which is one of the countries with the worst PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm) pollution in the world. A wealth of studies proved that PM2.5 pollution can lead to diseases such as cerebrovascular, respiratory and cardiopulmonary diseases. Considering the randomness of the behavior pattern of the crowd, PM2.5 population exposure distribution, population attributable fraction (PAF), and burden of disease were estimated on a 10 km × 10 km grid using a model based on two-dimensional Monte Carlo. The results showed that PM2.5 personal exposure in south-eastern Beijing is relatively large. The PM2.5 population exposure in adults >25 years of age and children <4 years of old was 41.52 μg/m3 and 37.48 μg/m3 in 2016. A total of 4538 (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 2595–6722) premature deaths were attributable to PM2.5 exposure, 2468 (95% UI: 2595–6722) of them from ischemic heart disease (IHD) which was responsible for the most.