Assessment of risk, impact, and disease burden due to exposure to fine particulate matter in the city of Córdoba, Argentina.

TAVERA BUSSO, IVÁN; AMARILLO, ANA CAROLINA; REINAUDI, MATÍAS EZEQUIEL; ARGAÑARAZ, CARINA INÉS; VARÓN, ANA PAULA; TINUNÍN, DANIELA TATIANA; CARRERAS, HEBE ALEJANDRA

Montevideo

Congreso; SETAC Latin America 15th Biennial Meeting; 2023

Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Air pollution caused by suspended particulate matter poses a serious threat to human health. Fineparticulate matter (PM2.5) is especially toxic due to its composition, which includes polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, we used the WHO AirQ+ 2.1 software to investigate the short- and long-term impacts of PM2.5 on the health of people living in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. We found that various meteorological factors such as temperature, wind speed, and precipitation, affected PM2.5 and PAHs levels, with high concentrations during autumn and winter. The impact analysis showed that deaths attributable to PM2.5 exposure accounted for between 1.04% and 1.44% of total deaths in the short term, and up to 1 ‰ inhabitants in the long term. However, the burden of disease analysis indicated that other factors, such as the chemical composition of PM2.5 could contribute to deaths. We also found that the risk of developing cancer due to PM2.5 exposure was highest during the cold seasons, but only for certain concentration ranges (23-33, 48-58 and >73 µg m-3). This pattern would be related to different environmental conditions of the city: the first range could be associated to regular vehicular traffic levels; the second range could be attributable to high pollutant level events due to thermal inversions and no rain periods; and the third one with extreme events, such as forest fires which have increased their frequency during the last years, in the vicinity of the city. The findings of the present study highlight the need to address the new WHO guidelines for PM2.5 in order to reduce the number of deaths as well as the lifetime lost due to exposure to air pollutants.