Survey of Ambient Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment Tools
- 6 January 2016
- journal article
- special series
- Published by Wiley in Risk Analysis
- Vol. 36 (9), 1718-1736
- https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12540
Abstract
Designing air quality policies that improve public health can benefit from information about air pollution health risks and impacts, which include respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and premature death. Several computer‐based tools help automate air pollution health impact assessments and are being used for a variety of contexts. Expanding information gathered for a May 2014 World Health Organization expert meeting, we survey 12 multinational air pollution health impact assessment tools, categorize them according to key technical and operational characteristics, and identify limitations and challenges. Key characteristics include spatial resolution, pollutants and health effect outcomes evaluated, and method for characterizing population exposure, as well as tool format, accessibility, complexity, and degree of peer review and application in policy contexts. While many of the tools use common data sources for concentration‐response associations, population, and baseline mortality rates, they vary in the exposure information source, format, and degree of technical complexity. We find that there is an important tradeoff between technical refinement and accessibility for a broad range of applications. Analysts should apply tools that provide the appropriate geographic scope, resolution, and maximum degree of technical rigor for the intended assessment, within resources constraints. A systematic intercomparison of the tools’ inputs, assumptions, calculations, and results would be helpful to determine the appropriateness of each for different types of assessment. Future work would benefit from accounting for multiple uncertainty sources and integrating ambient air pollution health impact assessment tools with those addressing other related health risks (e.g., smoking, indoor pollution, climate change, vehicle accidents, physical activity).Keywords
This publication has 50 references indexed in Scilit:
- An Integrated Risk Function for Estimating the Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter ExposureEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2014
- Asthma Morbidity and Ambient Air PollutionEpidemiology, 2014
- A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010The Lancet, 2012
- Chronic Exposure to Fine Particles and Mortality: An Extended Follow-up of the Harvard Six Cities Study from 1974 to 2009Environmental Health Perspectives, 2012
- Respiratory health effects of air pollution: Update on biomass smoke and traffic pollutionJournal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2012
- Estimating the National Public Health Burden Associated with Exposure to Ambient PM2.5 and OzoneRisk Analysis, 2011
- A multi–pollutant, risk–based approach to air quality management: Case study for DetroitAtmospheric Pollution Research, 2010
- Long-Term Ozone Exposure and MortalityThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2009
- Health-Related Benefits of Attaining the 8-Hr Ozone StandardEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2005
- Ozone and Short-term Mortality in 95 US Urban Communities, 1987-2000Published by American Medical Association (AMA) ,2004