Adverse effects of air pollution on human health predicted from tree-ring reductions – A conceptualization of a new ecosystem service

Ireneusz Malik, Małgorzata Wistuba, Lingxiao Sun, Jing He, Chunlan Li, Yang Yu, Riude Yu and Katarzyna Sitko

Ecosystem Services, 2023, vol. 64, issue C

Abstract: Air pollution adversely affects human health, while trees, conifers in particular, growing in areas affected by air pollution, immediately register pollution by developing rings with decreased width. Some diseases in human population, e.g. lung cancer, develop and are diagnosed with a certain delay in relation to the exposure to air pollution, thus, with a certain delay to ring reductions in trees. Therefore, reductions can be recognized as an early indicator that alerts about forthcoming outbreak of adverse health effects in human population. Based on this phenomenon we propose a new approach and a new methodology for assessing threats to human health and lives resulting from air pollution. In this paper we explain the application of new approach by presenting and describing it step by step. We state that data obtained through the new ecosystem service can be applied for early warning against adverse effects of air pollution on human health. This includes improved prediction of hospitalization patterns and financial costs for the healthcare system. The proposed methodology can be useful for decision makers e.g. local governments, state agencies, private enterprises and other stakeholders interested in controlling local emitters of air pollution and the harmfulness of pollution to human health and lives.

Keywords: Tree rings; Dendrochronology; Public health; Environmental epidemiology; Air pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041623000669
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:64:y:2023:i:c:s2212041623000669

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2023.101573

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().