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Hospital admissions in Iran for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases attributed to the Middle Eastern Dust storms

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Abstract

The main objective of this study was to assess the possible effects of airborne particulate matter less than 10 μm in diameter (PM10) from the Middle Eastern Dust (MED) events on human health in Khorramabad (Iran) in terms of estimated hospital admissions (morbidity) for cardiovascular diseases (HACD) and for respiratory diseases (HARD) during the period of 2015 to 2016. The AirQ program developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) was used to estimate the potential health impacts to daily PM10 exposures. The numbers of excess cases for cardiovascular/respiratory morbidity were 20/51, 72/185, and 20/53 on normal, dusty, and MED event days, respectively. The highest number of hospital admissions was estimated for PM10 concentrations in the range of 40 to 49 μg/m3, i.e, lower than the daily (50 μg/m3) limit value established by WHO. The results also showed that 4.7% (95% CI 3.2–6.7%) and 4.2% (95% CI 2.6–5.8%) of HARD and HACD, respectively, were attributed to PM10 concentrations above 10 μg/m3. The study demonstrates a significant impact of air pollution on people, which is manifested primarily as respiratory and cardiovascular problems. To reduce these effects, several immediate actions should be taken by the local authorities to control the impacts of dust storms on residents’ health, e.g., developing a green beltway along the Iran-Iraq border and management of water such as irrigation of dry areas that would be effective as mitigation strategies.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thanks to the Lorestan Environmental Protection Agency (LEPA) for providing the PM10 data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Care System of Karoon, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

    Yuef Omidi Khaniabadi

  2. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche, Mario Negri, Milan, Italy

    Roberto Fanelli

  3. Department of Territorial and Production Systems Sustainability, ENEA, Rome, Italy

    Alessandra De Marco

  4. Health Center of Hendijan, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

    Seyed Mohammad Daryanoosh

  5. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard University, 665 Huntington Avenue, Landmark Center Room 415, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Itai Kloog

  6. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA

    Philip K. Hopke

  7. Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 13699, USA

    Philip K. Hopke

  8. Environmental and Food Hygiene Laboratories (LIAA) of Department of Medical Sciences, Surgical and Advanced Technologies “G.F. Ingrassia”, Hygiene and Public Health, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Gea Oliveri Conti & Margherita Ferrante

  9. Abadan School of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran

    Mohammad Javad Mohammadi

  10. Environmental Technologies Research Center (ETRC), Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

    Ali Akbar Babaei & Gholamreza Goudarzi

  11. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran

    Hassan Basiri

  12. Air Pollution and Respiratory Diseases Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

    Gholamreza Goudarzi

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  1. Yuef Omidi Khaniabadi
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  2. Roberto Fanelli
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  3. Alessandra De Marco
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  4. Seyed Mohammad Daryanoosh
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  5. Itai Kloog
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  6. Philip K. Hopke
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  7. Gea Oliveri Conti
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  8. Margherita Ferrante
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  9. Mohammad Javad Mohammadi
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  10. Ali Akbar Babaei
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  12. Gholamreza Goudarzi
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Correspondence to Alessandra De Marco.

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Khaniabadi, Y.O., Fanelli, R., De Marco, A. et al. Hospital admissions in Iran for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases attributed to the Middle Eastern Dust storms. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 16860–16868 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9298-5

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