Spatiotemporal assessment of health burden and economic losses attributable to short-term exposure to ground-level ozone during 2015–2018 in China

• Main Authors: Zihan Zhang, Minghong Yao, Wenjing Wu, Xing Zhao, Juying Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2021-06-01
• Series: BMC Public Health
• Subjects: Ozone; Short-term; Health impact; Exposure factors; Economic loss; China
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10751-7

Abstract Background Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution is currently the one of the severe environmental problems in China. Although existing studies have quantified the O3-related health impact and economic loss, few have focused on the acute health effects of short-term exposure to O3 and have been limited to a single temporal and spatial dimension. Methods Based on the O3 concentration obtained from ground monitoring networks in 334 Chinese cities in 2015–2018, this study used a two-stage exposure parameter weighted Log-linear exposure-response function to estimate the cause-specific mortality for short-term exposure to O3. Results The value of statistical life (VSL) method that were used to calculate the economic loss at the city-level. Our results show that in China, the national all-cause mortality attributed to O3 was 0.27(95% CI: 0.14–0.55) to 0.39 (95% CI: 0.20–0.67) million across 2015–2018. The estimated economic loss caused by O3 was 387.76 (95% CI: 195.99–904.50) to 594.08 (95% CI: 303.34–1140.65) billion CNY, accounting for 0.52 to 0.69% of total reported GDP. Overall, the O3 attributed health and economic burden has begun to decline in China since 2017. However, highly polluted areas still face severe burden, and undeveloped areas suffer from high GDP losses. Conclusions There are substantial health impacts and economic losses related to short-term O3 exposure in China. The government should pay attention to the emerging ozone pollution, and continue to strengthen the intervention in traditional priority areas while solving the pollution problem in non-priority areas.