Abstract
Air pollution and its negative effects on health of people have been a global concern. Many studies had found a strong association between air pollutants and risk of death, but few had focused on the effects of six pollutants and rural areas. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of six air pollutants (CO, NO2, O3, PM2.5, PM10, and SO2) on non-accidental and respiratory deaths in rural areas of Anhui Province by adjusting for confounding factors, and to further clarify which populations were susceptible to death associated with air pollution. In the first phase of the analysis, the generalized additive models were combined with the distributed lag non-linear models to evaluate the individual effects of air pollution on death in each area. In the second stage, random-effects models were used to aggregate the associations between air pollutants and mortality risk in nine areas. Overall, six pollutants had the strongest effects on the risk of death on the lag 07 days. The associations between PM2.5 and NO2 and daily non-accidental deaths were strongest, with maximum RR (lag 07): 1.63 (1.37–1.88) and 1.67 (1.37–1.96). The maximum pooled effects of association between six air pollutants and RD were PM2.5, with RR (lag 07): 1.89 (1.45–2.34). PM2.5 and PM10 had significant differences between the elderly and the non-elderly with respectively, RRR: 1.22 (1.04–1.41) and 1.26 (1.11–1.42). In general, we found that six air pollutants were the important risk factors for deaths (deaths from respiratory disease and non-accidental) in rural areas of Anhui Province. PM10 and PM2.5 had a considerable impact on the elderly.
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Data availability
The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the subjects who participated in this research. This work was supported by Special Foundation for Science and Technology Development of Central Government Guiding Locals (Contract No. 202007d07050008).
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This work was funded by the Special Foundation for Science and Technology Development of Central Government Guiding Locals (Contract No. 202007d07050008).
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Guoao Li and Fen Huang collaboratively designed the study, both making substantial intellectual contributions. Guoao Li analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript together with Huabing Wu and Qi Zhong, and Fen Huang revised the manuscript. Jialiu He and Wanjun Yang contributed in collecting the data. Jinliang Zhu, Huanhuan Zhao, Hanshuang Zhang, and Zhenyu Zhu all contributed in interpreting the data. Guoao Li and Huabing Wu contributed equally. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Li, G., Wu, H., Zhong, Q. et al. Six air pollutants and cause-specific mortality: a multi-area study in nine counties or districts of Anhui Province, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 468–482 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15730-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15730-4