Mortality benefits of vigorous air quality improvement interventions during the periods of APEC Blue and Parade Blue in Beijing, China

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) Vol. 220; no. Pt A; pp. 222 - 227
• Main Authors: Lin, Hualiang, Liu, Tao, Fang, Fang, Xiao, Jianpeng, Zeng, Weilin, Li, Xing, Guo, Lingchuan, Tian, Linwei, Schootman, Mario, Stamatakis, Katherine A., Qian, Zhengmin, Ma, Wenjun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air Pollution - legislation & jurisprudence; Air Pollution - prevention & control; Air Pollution - statistics & numerical data; APEC Blue; Beijing; China; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Policy; Humans; Intervention; Mortality; Mortality - trends; Particulate Matter - analysis; Quality Improvement; China, People's Rep., Beijing; Intervention; Beijing; Air pollution; Mortality; APEC Blue
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.09.041

Vigorous air pollution control measures were implemented during the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and a large-scale military parade (described here as “APEC Blue” and “Parade Blue” periods) in Beijing, China. A natural experiment was conducted in a health impact assessment framework to estimate the number of deaths attributable to PM2.5, using concentration-response functions derived from previous studies conducted in Beijing, combined with the differences in PM2.5 concentrations between intervention and reference periods. Substantial reductions in daily PM2.5 concentrations were observed during both intervention periods. Using the same dates from the prior year as a reference, daily PM2.5 concentration decreased from 98.57 μg/m3 to 47.53 μg/m3 during “APEC Blue”, and from 59.15 μg/m3 to 17.07 μg/m3 during the “Parade Blue”. We estimated that 39–63 all-cause deaths (21–51 cardiovascular, 6–13 respiratory deaths) have been prevented during the APEC period; and 41–65 deaths (22–52 cardiovascular, 6–13 respiratory deaths) have been prevented during the Parade period. This study shows that substantial mortality reductions could be achieved by implementing stringent air pollution mitigation measures. [Display omitted] •Air quality was improved during two large-scale events in Beijing, China.•There were about 50% reductions in PM2.5 concentrations.•The two events prevented about 39–112 deaths compared to two reference periods. There were about 50% reductions in daily PM2.5 concentrations during the APEC and Parade Blue periods compared with the reference periods, and we estimated that the air pollution improvement intervention measures resulted in substantial mortality reductions.