Disparities in global disease burden attributed to ambient particulate matter pollution and household air pollution from solid fuels.

Journal: Ecotoxicology And Environmental Safety
Published:
Abstract

Air pollution from Ambient Particulate Matter (APM) and Household Air Pollution (HAP) is a significant global health issue, causing millions of deaths each year. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of their combined disease burden across 204 countries from 1990 to 2021, examining trends and associations with the Socio-Demographic Index (SDI). Using data from the Global Burden of Disease 2021 and World Bank databases, we extracted Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), age-standardized DALY rates (ASDR) for all-cause diseases and seven conditions, and covariant. Estimated Annual Percentage Change and quasi-Poisson generalized linear models were used. Results indicate a 54.93 % increase in APM-related DALYs and a 47.39 % decrease in HAP-related DALYs. APM-related DALYs were higher in male than female, yet in certain regions, the burden of some HAP-related diseases was higher in females than in males. Higher SDI regions showed a significant decline in HAP-related disease burden, while APM-related impacts continued to rise in lower SDI areas. Recently, APM-related DALYs have exceeded those from HAP in High, High-middle, and Middle SDI regions, while HAP remains the predominant burden in Low-middle and Low SDI regions. The Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asian regions reported the highest APM-related ASDR, whereas the African region faced the largest HAP burden. For every 0.01 increase in SDI, APM-related ASDR rose by 1.03 %, and HAP-related ASDR fell by 0.79 %. Urgent actions, such as industrial emission reduction in high SDI areas and improved household energy access in low SDI areas, are essential.