Estimation of PM_2.5 using high-resolution satellite data and its mortality risk in an area of Iran

ABSTRACT

Satellite-based exposure of fine particulate matters has been seldom used as a predictor of mortality. PM_2.5 was predicted using Aerosol Optical Depths (AOD) through a two-stage regression model. The predicted PM_2.5 was corrected for the bias using two approaches. We estimated the impact by two different scenarios of PM_2.5 in the model. We statistically found different distributions of the predicted PM_2.5 over the region. Compared to the reference value (5 µg/m³), 90th and 95th percentiles had significant adverse effect on total mortality (RR _{90th percentile}:1.45; CI 95%: 1.08–1.95 and RR _{95th percentile}:1.53; CI 95%: 1.11–2.1). Nearly 1050 deaths were attributed to any range of the air pollution (unhealthy range), of which more than half were attributed to high concentration range. Given the adverse effect of extreme values compared to the both scenarios, more efforts are suggested to define local-specific reference values and preventive strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Aerosol optical depths
• PM_2.5
• mortality
• risk

Acknowledgements

The researchers thank the National Department of Environment and Iran Meteorological Organization for providing the data. This study was supported by Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. So, we appreciate the committee which approved and supported this study (Grant No: IR.MUK.REC.1402.201).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Guoxing Li

Conceptualization; Resources; Software; Roles/Writing – original draft; Review & editing.

Omid Aboubakri

Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Conceptualization; Resources; Software; Supervision; Roles/Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing.

Samira Soleimani

Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Conceptualization; Resources; Software

Afshin Maleki

Investigation; Conceptualization; Resources

Reza Rezaee

Methodology; Validation; Writing – review &editing.

Mahdi Safari

Roles/Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing.

Gholamreza Goudarzi

Writing – review & editing

Fariba Fatehi

Writing – review & editing

Availability of data and materials

The data is not publicly available due to ethical concerns but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

The main R codes are available in supplementary file.

Consent to participate

The study does not involve human subjects and the data with no personal identification was obtained from health deputy.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by review board of Ethics Committee at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences with the ethic code of IR.MUK.REC.1402.201.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2024.2325629.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences with the ethic code of IR.MUK.REC.1402.201.