County-Wide Mortality Assessments Attributable to PM 2.5 Emissions from Coal Consumption in Taiwan

Chia-Pin Chio, Wei-Cheng Lo, Ben-Jei Tsuang, Chieh-Chun Hu, Kai-Chen Ku, Yi-Sheng Wang, Yung-Jen Chen, Hsien-Ho Lin and Chang-Chuan Chan
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Chia-Pin Chio: Innovation and Policy Center for Population Health and Sustainable Environment, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10055, Taiwan
Wei-Cheng Lo: Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10055, Taiwan
Ben-Jei Tsuang: Department of Environmental Engineering, Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture (IDCSA), National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
Chieh-Chun Hu: Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10055, Taiwan
Kai-Chen Ku: Department of Environmental Engineering, Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture (IDCSA), National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
Yi-Sheng Wang: Department of Environmental Engineering, Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture (IDCSA), National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
Yung-Jen Chen: Greenpeace East Asia, Taipei 10045, Taiwan
Hsien-Ho Lin: Innovation and Policy Center for Population Health and Sustainable Environment, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10055, Taiwan
Chang-Chuan Chan: Innovation and Policy Center for Population Health and Sustainable Environment, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10055, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Over one-third of energy is generated from coal consumption in Taiwan. In order to estimate the health impact assessment attributable to PM 2.5 concentrations emitted from coal consumption in Taiwan. We applied a Gaussian trajectory transfer-coefficient model to obtain county-wide PM 2.5 exposures from coal consumption, which includes coal-fired power plants and combined heat and power plants. Next, we calculated the mortality burden attributable to PM 2.5 emitted by coal consumption using the comparative risk assessment framework developed by the Global Burden of Disease study. Based on county-level data, the average PM 2.5 emissions from coal-fired plants in Taiwan was estimated at 2.03 ± 1.29 (range: 0.32–5.64) μg/m 3 . With PM 2.5 increments greater than 0.1 μg/m 3 , there were as many as 16 counties and 66 air quality monitoring stations affected by coal-fired plants and 6 counties and 18 monitoring stations affected by combined heat and power plants. The maximum distances affected by coal-fired and combined heat and power plants were 272 km and 157 km, respectively. Our findings show that more counties were affected by coal-fired plants than by combined heat and power plants with significant increments of PM 2.5 emissions. We estimated that 359.6 (95% CI: 334.8–384.9) annual adult deaths and 124.4 (95% CI: 116.4–132.3) annual premature deaths were attributable to PM 2.5 emitted by coal-fired plants in Taiwan. Even in six counties without power plants, there were 75.8 (95% CI: 60.1–91.5) deaths and 25.8 (95%CI: 20.7–30.9) premature deaths annually attributable to PM 2.5 emitted from neighboring coal-fired plants. This study presents a precise and effective integrated approach for assessing air pollution and the health impacts of coal-fired and combined heat and power plants.

Keywords: fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ); global burden of disease (GBD); coal-fired power plant (CP); combined heat and power plant (CHP) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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