Overview of particulate air pollution and human health in China: Evidence, challenges, and opportunities

作者：Qingli Zhang, Xia Meng, Su Shi, Lena Kan, Renjie Chen, Haidong Kan · 发表于：The Innovation · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1016/j.xinn.2022.100312 · 被引用次数：153 · 研究领域：Air Quality and Health Impacts、Climate Change and Health Impacts、Air Quality Monitoring and Forecasting

Ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution in China continues to be a major public health challenge. With the release of the new WHO air quality guidelines in 2021, there is an urgent need for China to contemplate a revision of air quality standards (AQS). In the recent decade, there has been an increase in epidemiological studies on PM in China. A comprehensive evaluation of such epidemiological evidence among the Chinese population is central for revision of the AQS in China and in other developing countries with similar air pollution problems. We thus conducted a systematic review on the epidemiological literature of PM published in the recent decade. In summary, we identified the following: (1) short-term and long-term PM exposure increase mortality and morbidity risk without a discernible threshold, suggesting the necessity for continuous improvement in air quality; (2) the magnitude of long-term associations with mortality observed in China are comparable with those in developed countries, whereas the magnitude of short-term associations are appreciably smaller; (3) governmental clean air policies and personalized mitigation measures are potentially effective in protecting public and individual health, but need to be validated using mortality or morbidity outcomes; (4) particles of smaller size range and those originating from fossil fuel combustion appear to show larger relative health risks; and (5) molecular epidemiological studies provide evidence for the biological ...