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Source profiling of air pollution and its association with acute respiratory infections in the Himalayan-bound region of India

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Abstract

The studies related to air pollutants and their association with human health over the mountainous region are of utmost importance and are sparse especially over the Himalayan region of India. The linkages between various atmospheric variables and clinically validated data have been done using various datasets procured from satellite, model reanalysis, and surface observations during 2013–2017. Aerosol optical depth, air temperature, and wind speed are significantly related (p < 0.001) to the incidence of acute respiratory infections with its peak during winter. Model-derived particulate matter (PM2.5) shows high contributions of black carbon, organic carbon, and sulfate during winter. The wind roses show the passage of winds from the south–west and southern side of the region. Back trajectory density plot along with bivariate polar plot analyses have shown that most of the winds coming from the western side are taking a southward direction before reaching the study area and may be bringing pollutants from the Indo-Gangetic Plain and other surrounding regions. Our study shows that the accumulation of pollutants in the Himalayan valley is owing to the meteorological stability with significant local emissions from burning of biomass and biofuels along with long-range and mid-range transport during the winter season that significantly correlated with the incidence of acute respiratory infections in the region.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful and offer sincere gratitude to the Department of Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP), Ministry of Health-GOI, IMD Srinagar, for providing the necessary data to carry out this work. We would like to thank the MODIS, MISR, ERA5, and MERRA-2 team members for the data used in this study. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Prashant Rajput and Dr. Rayees Ahmad Dar for fruitful discussion during the revision process. Further, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for his valuable comments and suggestions.

Availability of data and materials

Meteorological data are provided by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD Srinagar; https://mausam.imd.gov.in/). MERRA-2 can be downloaded from https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/reanalysis/MERRA-2/data_access/. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) from MODIS and MISR can be obtained from https://giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/. Monthly data related to acute respiratory infections (ARIs) were obtained from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) under the Ministry of Health, government of India. ERA5 data can be obtained from https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

    Manzoor A. Wani & Ishtiaq A. Mayer

  2. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Amit K. Mishra & Saloni Sharma

  3. Indian Meteorological Department, Rambagh, Srinagar, India

    Mukhtar Ahmad

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  1. Manzoor A. Wani
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  2. Amit K. Mishra
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Contributions

MAW and AKM designed the work. MAW, MA, and AKM collected the required data. Data analysis and interpretation were done by AKM, MAV, and SS. AKM, MAW, and IAM drafted the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Manzoor A. Wani or Amit K. Mishra.

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Wani, M.A., Mishra, A.K., Sharma, S. et al. Source profiling of air pollution and its association with acute respiratory infections in the Himalayan-bound region of India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 68600–68614 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15413-0

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