TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating the health impact of air pollution in Scotland, and the resulting benefits of reducing concentrations in city centres
AU - Lee, Duncan
AU - Robertson, Chris
AU - Ramsay, Colin
AU - Gillespie, Colin
AU - Napier, Gary
PY - 2019/6/30
Y1 - 2019/6/30
N2 -
Air pollution continues to be a key health issue in Scotland, despite recent improvements in concentrations. The Scottish Government published the Cleaner Air For Scotland strategy in 2015, and will introduce Low Emission Zones (LEZs) in the four major cities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) by 2020. However, there is no epidemiological evidence quantifying the current health impact of air pollution in Scotland, which this paper addresses. Additionally, we estimate the health benefits of reducing concentrations in city centres where most LEZs are located. We focus on cardio-respiratory disease and total non-accidental mortality outcomes, linking them to concentrations of both particulate (PM
10
and PM
2.5
) and gaseous (NO
2
and NO
x
) pollutants. Our two main findings are that: (i) all pollutants exhibit significant associations with respiratory disease but not cardiovascular disease; and (ii) reducing concentrations in city centres with low resident populations only provides a small health benefit.
AB -
Air pollution continues to be a key health issue in Scotland, despite recent improvements in concentrations. The Scottish Government published the Cleaner Air For Scotland strategy in 2015, and will introduce Low Emission Zones (LEZs) in the four major cities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) by 2020. However, there is no epidemiological evidence quantifying the current health impact of air pollution in Scotland, which this paper addresses. Additionally, we estimate the health benefits of reducing concentrations in city centres where most LEZs are located. We focus on cardio-respiratory disease and total non-accidental mortality outcomes, linking them to concentrations of both particulate (PM
10
and PM
2.5
) and gaseous (NO
2
and NO
x
) pollutants. Our two main findings are that: (i) all pollutants exhibit significant associations with respiratory disease but not cardiovascular disease; and (ii) reducing concentrations in city centres with low resident populations only provides a small health benefit.
KW - air pollution
KW - cardio-respiratory disease
KW - epidemiological modelling
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064316472&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/180700/
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/spatial-and-spatio-temporal-epidemiology
U2 - 10.1016/j.sste.2019.02.003
DO - 10.1016/j.sste.2019.02.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064316472
SN - 1877-5845
VL - 29
SP - 85
EP - 96
JO - Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology
JF - Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology
ER -