Ambient exposure of O 3 and NO 2 and associated health risk in Kuwait
- PDF / 1,160,917 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 91 Downloads / 167 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Ambient exposure of O3 and NO2 and associated health risk in Kuwait Ali Al-Hemoud 1
2
3
4
3
& Janvier Gasana & Abdullah Alajeel & Ebrahim Alhamoud & Ahmad Al-Shatti & Ahmed Al-Khayat
5
Received: 19 June 2020 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), indissoluble air pollutants in the atmosphere, have been confirmed in various parts of the world to have detrimental health effects on humans. Currently, such information is lacking in Kuwait. The objectives of this study are to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of O3 and NO2 concentrations in Kuwait during a 4-year period (2014–2017) and to quantify the associated short- and long-term health effects, including all-cause, respiratory, and cardiovascular mortalities and morbidities during the same study period. Exposure assessment showed that the annual levels (22.5–26.4 ppb), SOMO35, and the 8-hour 4-year mean (38 ppb) of O3 were very low and below the World Health Organization (WHO) (50 ppb) and Kuwaiti (70 ppb) regulatory limits. The annual mean levels of NO2 ranged from 30.3 to 43.8 ppb and were significantly higher than both WHO and Kuwait limits (21 ppb). As expected, O3 and NO2 levels showed opposing trends, with higher concentrations of NO2 recorded in early morning and mid-evening, during autumn and winter, and during Saturdays (the so-called weekend effect). Health effects indicated high respiratory diseases due to short-term exposure to NO2. Contrary to the western countries’ pollution levels, Kuwait showed lower O3 and higher NO2 levels. There is potential for substantial health improvements in Kuwait by reducing NO2 pollution through stringent control measures of stationary and mobile sources. Keywords Health Exposure . O3 . NO2 . SOMO35 . AirQ+
Introduction Ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are among the most important air contaminants, besides fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which have been associated with detrimental health Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-02011481-w. * Ali Al-Hemoud [email protected] 1
Crisis Decision Support Program, Environment and Life Sciences Research Center, Crisis Decision Support Program, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P. O. Box 24885, 13109 Safat, Kuwait
2
Faculty of Public Health, Kuwait University, P. O. Box 24923, 13110 Safat, Kuwait
3
Ministry of Health, P. O. Box 5, 13001 Shuwaikh, Kuwait
4
Faculty of Law, Kuwait University, P. O. Box 5475, 13055 Safat, Kuwait
5
Techno-Economics Division, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P. O. Box 24885, 13109 Safat, Kuwait
effects. Photochemical smog or ground-level O3 results from a complex reaction of precursors, such as NO2 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. NO2 is a marker for the cocktail of combustion-related pollutants (WHO 2006) and is produced from vehicle emiss
Data Loading...
