TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid Increases in Warm-Season Surface Ozone and Resulting Health Impact in China since 2013
AU - Lu, Xiao
AU - Zhang, Lin
AU - Wang, Xiaolin
AU - Gao, Meng
AU - Li, Ke
AU - Zhang, Yuzhong
AU - Yue, Xu
AU - Zhang, Yuanhang
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0210102) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41922037). The authors acknowledge the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) initiative for providing the surface ozone data used in this study. We thank Dr. Owen Cooper, Dr. Kai-Lan Chang at NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, and Dr. Martin G. Schultz at Jülich Supercomputing Centre for useful suggestions in trend calculation and support in TOAR data application. We thank Dr. Karl Seltzer at Duke University for useful suggestions on health impact estimates.
PY - 2020/4/14
Y1 - 2020/4/14
N2 - China's nationwide ozone monitoring network initiated in 2013 has observed severe surface ozone pollution. This network, combined with the recent Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) data set, offers a more comprehensive view on global surface ozone distribution and trends. Here, we report quantitative estimates of the warm-season (April-September) surface ozone trends and resulting health impacts at Chinese cities in 2013-2019. Both the parametric and nonparametric linear trends for 12 ozone metrics relevant to human health and vegetation exposure are derived. We find that all ozone metrics averaged from Chinese urban sites have increased significantly since 2013. The warm-season daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) ozone levels increased by 2.4 ppb (5.0%) year-1, with over 90% of the sites showing positive trends and 30% with trends larger than 3.0 ppb year-1. These rates are among the fastest trends, even faster in some Chinese cities, compared with the urban ozone trends in any other region worldwide reported in TOAR. Ozone metrics reflecting the cumulative exposure effect on human health and vegetation such as SOMO35 and AOT40 have increased at even faster rates (>10% year-1). We estimate that the total premature respiratory mortalities attributable to ambient MDA8 ozone exposure in 69 Chinese cities are 64,370 in 2019, which has increased by 60% compared to 2013 levels and requires urgent attention.
AB - China's nationwide ozone monitoring network initiated in 2013 has observed severe surface ozone pollution. This network, combined with the recent Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) data set, offers a more comprehensive view on global surface ozone distribution and trends. Here, we report quantitative estimates of the warm-season (April-September) surface ozone trends and resulting health impacts at Chinese cities in 2013-2019. Both the parametric and nonparametric linear trends for 12 ozone metrics relevant to human health and vegetation exposure are derived. We find that all ozone metrics averaged from Chinese urban sites have increased significantly since 2013. The warm-season daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) ozone levels increased by 2.4 ppb (5.0%) year-1, with over 90% of the sites showing positive trends and 30% with trends larger than 3.0 ppb year-1. These rates are among the fastest trends, even faster in some Chinese cities, compared with the urban ozone trends in any other region worldwide reported in TOAR. Ozone metrics reflecting the cumulative exposure effect on human health and vegetation such as SOMO35 and AOT40 have increased at even faster rates (>10% year-1). We estimate that the total premature respiratory mortalities attributable to ambient MDA8 ozone exposure in 69 Chinese cities are 64,370 in 2019, which has increased by 60% compared to 2013 levels and requires urgent attention.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084742912&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00171
DO - 10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00171
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85084742912
SN - 2328-8930
VL - 7
SP - 240
EP - 247
JO - Environmental Science and Technology Letters
JF - Environmental Science and Technology Letters
IS - 4
ER -
