Country-Wide Health Impact Assessment of Airborne Particulate Matter in Estonia

This study is aimed to assess the health impacts of outdoor PM2.5 concentrations to entire population of Estonia. As the air quality monitoring network in Estonia is rather sparse (six urban, three rural and a few industrial sites), the exposure assessment was based on long-term modelling, controlled by monitoring data from existing stations. The model runs were performed with IairViro modelling system, including the Eulerian MATCH model for country-wide run with 5 km grid resolution and AirViro urban model with 200 m grid resolution for five major cities. The database of pollution sources includes industrial, transport and domestic heating emissions. The average annual PM2.5 concentrations were found 7–9 μg/m3 at most of rural and in 9–13 μg/m3 typically at urban areas, up to 30 μg/m3 in some parts of capital city Tallinn. To estimate the health risks, the base-line national health statistics and exposure-response coefficients from previous epidemiological studies (ACS, APHEIS), were applied. It was found that on average 600 (CI 95 % 155–1,061) premature deaths per year are caused by PM2.5 pollution in Estonia, which has population nearly 1.3 million. On average 5 months of life are lost, maximum 14 months in some parts of Tallinn. About 900 additional hospitalizations due to pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases occur per year.