wmo’s global atmosphere watch symposium air …€™s global atmosphere watch symposium: air...

WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch

Symposium

Air Quality & Health

18 March 2013, Geneva, Switzerland

PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch Symposium: Air Quality & health

Heather Adair-Rohani

Technical Officer

Interventions for a Healthy Environment Unit

Dept. of Public Health & Environment

WHO HQ

WHO's Public Health and Environment Department ‘s role is

to promote a healthier environment, intensify primary

prevention and influence public policies in all sectors so as to

address the root causes of environmental threats to health.

WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch Symposium: Air Quality & health

Presentation Overview:

• Health Impacts of Air Pollution

• Exposure & Disease Burden

• Moving forward: Better estimating exposure

• Moving forward: WHO Activities for healthy air

Health Impacts: Air Pollutants Products of incomplete combustion

Outdoor Air Pollution

• CO2 emissions are not a direct problem for health---rather it is a mixture

of pollutants that are released during the incomplete combustion of carbon-

based fuels that have direct impacts on health.

•The products of incomplete combustion (PICS) include but are not limited to things like particulate matter, ozone, methane, poly-aromatic

hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, etc

•The single most studied and one of the most important health-damaging

pollutant is particulate matter (PM).

PAH CO CH4 NMVOCs

NOx SOx

CH2O

CO2

PM

Health Impacts: Air Pollutants Particulate Matter


•PM in urban and non-urban environments

which can be formed primarily or secondarily, is

a complex mixture of chemical components that

have diverse chemical & physical characteristics

that can impact health such as size, particle core chemistry, metals, biogenic origin etc.

•The toxicity of PM may potentially arise from

the particle’s presence on biological tissues, to

the actions of chemical constituents, including absorded components or a combination of these

factors.

•Exposure to PM is associated with bronchial

irritation, inflammation, increased reactivity, reduced mucociliary clearance, genotoxic

events (i.e. carcinogenic) and reduced

macrophage response.

Health Impacts: Growing Evidence-base Specific health outcomes

1. Outdoor Air Pollution

Outcome Strength of

Evidence

Child ALRI, Lung cancer, COPD, LBW, Cataract

Strong

TB, Cancer of UADT Moderate

Ca cervix, adult ALRI, asthma, O/Media

Moderate

Exposure: How big is the problem?

Pollution

• Outdoor air pollution

• Household air pollution

Exposure: Who & how much? Outdoor Air Pollution (OAP)

oInefficient fossil fuel combustion from the industry,

and transport sectors along with biomass burning

are some of the largest contributors to OAP.

oThe greatest health impacts from exposure to

outdoor air pollution are seen more in middle- to high-

income countries.

oExposure to OAP in urban areas was responsible for

to 1 million premature deaths & accounted for 0.5% of

the total disease burden in 2004.

Exposure: Who & how much? Outdoor Air Pollution (OAP)

oA recent Lancet study, estimates that in 2010, 3.3

million deaths and 3.1% of the global disease burden

from were attributed to OAP in both urban & rural

areas

0.5 million of these deaths or 16% can be attributed

to the outdoor air pollution from household air

pollution leaking outdoors.

o A large part of the variations in OAP disease

estimates are due to urban/rural coverage, different

underlying disease burden estimates & greater number

of disease outcomes (e.g. CVD) accounted for in OAP

recent estimates

Exposure: WHO & how much? Household Air Pollution (HAP)


oAround 2.7 billion people, mostly in developing

countries, rely on the traditional use of solid fuels (i.e.

wood, dung, coal, crop waste) to meet their cooking,

needs.

o In 2004, WHO estimates nearly two million deaths

were attributed to household air pollution from the use

of open fires and simple stoves for cooking–accounting

for 2.7% of the global disease burden

Exposure: WHO & how much? Household Air Pollution (HAP)


o The 2012 Lancet study shows an increase in disease

burden to HAP---3.5 million deaths and 4.5% of the

total disease burden attributed to HAP

oSimilar to OAP, a greater number of disease

outcomes accounted in new deaths and disease

estimates including cardiovascular disease, lung

cancer from biomass use, and cataract.

o These estimates only account from the deaths and

disease from primary cooking fuel---mortality &

morbidity estimates are likely to be higher if secondary

fuel use, and other end uses (heating, lighting) were

accounted for in exposure estimates.

Moving Forward: Growing Evidence-base for health Integrated Concentration-response function


Kirk R. Smith, Jennifer L. Peel

Environ Health Perspect. 2010 December;

118(12): 1643–1645. Published online 2010

August 20.

Moving forward: Estimating OAP Exposure Satellite-based estimates provide a truly global picture of the burden of disease due to outdoor air pollution


Unger, 2010

Brauer M, Ammann M, Burnett R et al. GBD 2010 Outdoor Air Pollution Expert Group 2011 Submitted –under review

Moving forward: Estimating OAP Exposure Satellite-based estimates provide a truly global picture of the burden of disease due to outdoor air pollution


Unger, 2010

2005 population-weighted regional estimated average PM2.5

Distributions of selected regional 2005 estimated PM2.5 by urban and rural areas

Brauer M, Ammann M, Burnett R et al. GBD 2010 Outdoor Air Pollution Expert Group 2011 Submitted –under review

16

Crouse D, Burnett RD et al. Risk of Mortality in Relation to Long-term Exposure to Low Concentrations of Fine Particulate

Matter: A Canadian National-level Cohort Study. Submitted 2011

Canadian Census Cohort (1991 – 2001)

Moving Forwarding: Estimating OAP Exposure Satellite-based estimates of Moscow smoke event

Before Fires

During Fires

van Donkelaar et al., in prep

From: A van Donkelaar et al. Atmospheric Environment 2011

MODIS-based (IQR)

Moving Forwarding: Estimating OAP Exposure Satellite-based estimates and HAP

Before Fires

During Fires


Source: S Guttikunda. Urban Air Pollution Analysis for Ulaanbaatar. World bank report 2007

Moving Forwarding: Guidance for Healthy Air WHO Activities for policy-makers & implementation

Before Fires

During Fires


• Indoor Air Quality •WHO Air Quality Guidelines for household fuel combustion •Expansion of WHO Global Household Energy Database

• Outdoor Air Quality

• Update & expansion of WHO’s Outdoor Air Pollution database • Update of WHO Air Quality Guidelines, Global update 2005

• Support to countries for air quality monitoring and intervention implementation – e.g. Sustainable Energy for All Global Tracking Framework, UN Energy • Raising awareness for health co-benefits of climate change adaptation & mitigation strategies– Health in the Green Economy Series, WMO/WHO Climate & Health Atlas, Clean Air Coalition for Short-Lived Pollutants

Before Fires

During Fires


Thank you and any questions?

wmo’s global atmosphere watch symposium air …€™s global atmosphere watch symposium: air...

Documents