Journal article
Health Impacts and Economic Costs of Air Pollution in the Metropolitan Area of Skopje
Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark1
UNEP DTU Partnership, Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark2
SERC Reliability Corporation3
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki4
WHO European Centre for Environment and Health5
Institute of Public Health of Republic of Macedonia6
Urban outdoor air pollution, especially particulate matter, remains a major environmental health problem in Skopje, the capital of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Despite the documented high levels of pollution in the city, the published evidence on its health impacts is as yet scarce. we obtained, cleaned, and validated Particulate Matter (PM) concentration data from five air quality monitoring stations in the Skopje metropolitan area, applied relevant concentration-response functions, and evaluated health impacts against two theoretical policy scenarios.
We then calculated the burden of disease attributable to PM and calculated the societal cost due to attributable mortality. In 2012, long-term exposure to PM2.5 (49.2 μg/m³) caused an estimated 1199 premature deaths (CI95% 821-1519). The social cost of the predicted premature mortality in 2012 due to air pollution was estimated at between 570 and 1470 million euros.
Moreover, PM2.5 was also estimated to be responsible for 547 hospital admissions (CI95% 104-977) from cardiovascular diseases, and 937 admissions (CI95% 937-1869) for respiratory disease that year. Reducing PM2.5 levels to the EU limit (25 μg/m³) could have averted an estimated 45% of PM-attributable mortality, while achieving the WHO Air Quality Guidelines (10 μg/m³) could have averted an estimated 77% of PM-attributable mortality.
Both scenarios would also attain significant reductions in attributable respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions. Besides its health impacts in terms of increased premature mortality and hospitalizations, air pollution entails significant economic costs to the population of Skopje. Reductions in PM2.5 concentrations could provide substantial health and economic gains to the city.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | MDPI |
Year: | 2018 |
Pages: | 626 |
ISSN: | 16604601 and 16617827 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.3390/ijerph15040626 |
ORCIDs: | Sanchez Martinez, Gerardo and 0000-0002-8079-3391 |
Air pollution Burden of disease Economic evaluation Particulate matter SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being Skopje The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Air Pollution Cardiovascular Diseases Cities Environmental Exposure Health Status Hospitalization Humans Medicine Mortality, Premature Particulate Matter R Republic of North Macedonia Respiratory Tract Diseases Risk Assessment air pollution burden of disease economic evaluation particulate matter the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia