Health impacts of particulate matter in air by AirQ model in Khorramabad city, Iran

Introduction: Air pollution due to particulate matter is a major environmental and health issue in all regions of the world. The aim of this study was to investigate the health impacts of PM10 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤10μm) in Khorramabad city, Iran in 2014. Materials and methods: In this study, PM10 sampling was conducted by a high-volume sampler at flow rate of 1.1-1.4 m3/min. The annual mortality and morbidity to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases attributable to PM10 exposure were estimated by AirQ software model. This model has been proposed to health impact assessment of atmospheric pollutants by World Health Organization (WHO). Results: The annual, winter and summer averages of PM10 were 80.59, 58.28, and 80.59μg/m3, respectively. The total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases and hospital admissions due to cardiovascular diseases were estimated 320, 304, 72, 507 and 201 cases, respectively. Conclusion: In order to diminish the adverse health effects of particulate matter in Khorramabad city, health training by healthcare centers should be conducted to public people especially persons with chronic lung and heart diseases, elderly and children. Moreover, the efforts should be conducted in the governmental scale in order to control the Middle East dust storms (MED) sources.