Tracking\nPM<sub>2.5</sub> and O<sub>3</sub> Pollution\nand the Related Health Burden in China 2013–2020
Qingyang Xiao (686993), Guannan Geng (417509), Tao Xue (488854), Shigan Liu (11297966), Cilan Cai (2027647), Kebin He (797417), Qiang Zhang (45005)
Abstract
Based on the exposure\ndata sets from the Tracking Air Pollution\nin China (TAP, <u>http://tapdata.org.cn/</u>), we\ncharacterized the spatiotemporal variations in PM<sub>2.5</sub> and\nO<sub>3</sub> exposures and quantified the long- and short-term exposure\nrelated premature deaths during 2013–2020 with respect to the\ntwo-stage clean air actions (2013–2017 and 2018–2020).\nWe find a 48% decrease in national PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure during\n2013–2020, although the decrease rate has slowed after 2017.\nAt the same time, O<sub>3</sub> pollution worsened, with the average\nApril–September O<sub>3</sub> exposure increased by 17%. The\nimproved air quality led to 308 thousand and 16 thousand avoided long-\nand short-term exposure related deaths, respectively, in 2020 compared\nto the 2013 level, which was majorly attributed to the reduction in\nambient PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration. It is also noticed that with\nsmaller PM<sub>2.5</sub> reduction, the avoided long-term exposure\nassociated deaths in 2017–2020 (13%) was greater than that\nin 2013–2017 (9%), because the exposure–response curve\nis nonlinear. As a result of the efforts in reducing PM<sub>2.5</sub>-polluted days with the daily average PM<sub>2.5</sub> higher than\n75 μg/m<sup>3</sup> and the considerable increase in O<sub>3</sub>-polluted days with the daily maximum 8 h average O<sub>3</sub> higher\nthan 160 μg/m<sup>3</sup>, deaths attributable to the short-term\nO<sub>3</sub> exposure were greater than those due to PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure since 2018. Future air quality improvement strategies for\nthe coordinated control of PM<sub>2.5</sub> and O<sub>3</sub> are\nurgently needed.