A comparative study of life-years lost attributable to air particulate matter in Asia-Pacific and European countries.

Air particulate matter (PM) and its harmful effects on human health are of great concern globally due to all-cause and cause-specific mortality impacts across different population groups. While Europe has made significant progress in reducing particulate air pollution-related mortality through innovative technologies and policies, many countries in Asia-Pacific region still rely on high-polluting technologies and have yet to implement effective policies to address this issue, resulting in higher levels of mortality due to air pollution in the region. This study has three aims related to quantifying life-years lost (LYL) attributable to PM, and further separated into ambient PM and household air pollution (HAP): (1) to investigate LYL by causes of death; (2) to compare LYL between Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe; and (3) to assess LYL across different socio-demographic index (SDI) countries. The data used come from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and Health Effects Institute (HEI). Our results show that average LYL due to PM in APAC was greater than in Europe, with some Pacific island countries particularly affected by the exposure to HAP. Three quarters of LYL came from premature deaths by ischemic heart disease and stroke, in both continents. There were significant differences between SDI groups for causes of death due to ambient PM and HAP. Our findings call for urgent improvement of clean air to reduce indoor and outdoor air pollution-related mortality in the APAC region.

Mortality attributable to fine particulate matter in Asia, 2000-2015: a cross-sectional cause-of-death analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect that particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 µg (PM2.5) had on mortality in Asian populations in years 2000-2015. SETTING: Mortality and level of PM2.5 data from the United Nations, Global Burden of Disease and University of Chicago were used. OUTCOME MEASURES: Age pattern of mortality and the number of life-years lost (LYL) attributable to PM2.5 in years 2000-2015. LYL were further separated into causes of death to quantify the contribution of each cause. RESULTS: Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) mortality increased to represent over 31% of the LYL attributable to PM2.5 between 2005-2010 and 2010-2015 in Asia (females 31% and males 35%). However, great diversity in LYL attributable to PM2.5 by causes-of-death were found across the region, with IHD proportions of LYL ranging from 25% to 63% for males from Eastern and Central Asia, respectively. Similar diversity was observed for mortality attributable to PM2.5 for other causes of death across Asia: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (LYL ranging from 6% to 28%), lung cancer (4% to 20%) and stroke (11% to 22%). CONCLUSION: PM2.5 is a crucial component in the rising health effects in Asia. The diverse trends in cause-specific mortality attributable to PM2.5 creates a further challenge for health systems in the region. These findings highlight that immediate interventions are needed to mitigate the increasing levels of air pollution and with that reduce its detrimental effect on the health and mortality of Asian populations.