The Short-Term Effects of Visibility and Haze on Mortality in a Coastal City of China: A Time-Series Study

Shaohua Gu, Jun Yang, Alistair Woodward, Mengmeng Li, Tianfeng He, Aihong Wang, Beibei Lu, Xiaobo Liu, Guozhang Xu and Qiyong Liu
Additional contact information
Shaohua Gu: Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo 315010, China
Jun Yang: Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510000, China
Alistair Woodward: School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland 92019, New Zealand
Mengmeng Li: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China
Tianfeng He: Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo 315010, China
Aihong Wang: Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo 315010, China
Beibei Lu: Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo 315010, China
Xiaobo Liu: State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, China
Guozhang Xu: Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo 315010, China
Qiyong Liu: State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Few studies have been conducted to investigate the acute health effects of visibility and haze, which may be regarded as proxy indicators of ambient air pollution. We used a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) combined with quasi-Poisson regression to estimate the relationship between visibility, haze and mortality in Ningbo, a coastal city of China. We found that the mortality risk of visibility was statistically significant only on the current day, while the risk of haze and PM 10 peaked on the second day and could last for three days. When the visibility was less than 10 km, each 1 km decrease of visibility at lag 0 day was associated with a 0.78% (95% CI: 0.22–1.36%) increase in total mortality and a 1.61% (95% CI: 0.39–2.85%) increase in respiratory mortality. The excess risk of haze at lag 0–2 days on total mortality, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality was 7.76% (95% CI: 3.29–12.42%), 7.73% (95% CI: 0.12–15.92%) and 17.77% (95% CI: 7.64–28.86%), respectively. Greater effects of air pollution were observed during the cold season than in the warm season, and the elderly were at higher risk compared to youths. The effects of visibility and haze were attenuated by single pollutants. These findings suggest that visibility and haze could be used as surrogates of air quality where pollutant data are scarce, and strengthen the evidence to develop policy to control air pollution and protect vulnerable populations.

Keywords: visibility; haze; ambient air pollution; mortality; vulnerable populations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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