Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Feb 25;861:160517. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160517. Epub 2022 Dec 2.
China suffers from severe PM pollution that has resulted in a huge health burden. Such PM-related health burden has long been suspected to differ between China's poverty-stricken areas (PAs) and non-poverty-stricken areas (NPAs). Yet, evidence-based examination of this long-held belief, which is critical as a barrier of environmental injustice to advancing China's sustainability, is still missing. Here our study shows that the PM pollution is more serious in China's NPAs than PAs-with their annual averages being respectively 54.83 μg/m and 43.63 μg/m-causing higher premature mortality in the NPAs. Compared to economic inequality, China's total PM-related premature mortality was relatively evenly distributed during 2000-2015 across regions of varying levels of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita but increased slightly in 2015-2020 owing to the dramatic change in age structure. The elderly population increased by 31 %. PM-related premature deaths were more severe for populations of low socioeconomic status, and such environmental health inequalities could be amplified by population aging. Additionally, population migration from China's PAs to developed cities contributed to 638, 779, 303, 954, and 896 premature deaths in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020, respectively. Changes in the age structure (53 %) and PM concentration (28 %) had the greatest impact on premature deaths, followed by changes in population (12 %) and baseline mortality (8 %). The contribution rate of changes in the age structure and PM concentration was higher in PAs than in NPAs. Our findings provide insight into PM-related premature death and environmental inequality, and may inform more equitable clean air policies to achieve China's sustainable development goals.
中国深受 PM 污染之苦，由此带来了巨大的健康负担。这种与 PM 相关的健康负担在贫困地区（PA）和非贫困地区（NPA）之间一直存在差异，这一点早已受到怀疑。然而，作为推进中国可持续发展的环境不公平的障碍，这种长期存在的观点，仍缺乏基于证据的检验。本研究表明，中国的 NPA 地区的 PM 污染比 PA 地区更为严重——其年平均值分别为 54.83μg/m 和 43.63μg/m——导致 NPA 地区的过早死亡率更高。与经济不平等相比，2000-2015 年期间，中国不同人均国内生产总值（GDP）水平地区的总 PM 相关过早死亡率相对均匀分布，但由于年龄结构的急剧变化，2015-2020 年略有增加。老年人口增加了 31%。社会经济地位较低的人群因 PM 相关过早死亡的情况更为严重，这种环境健康不平等可能会因人口老龄化而加剧。此外，中国 PA 地区的人口向发达城市迁移，分别导致 2000 年、2005 年、2010 年、2015 年和 2020 年的 638、779、303、954 和 896 人过早死亡。年龄结构（53%）和 PM 浓度（28%）的变化对过早死亡的影响最大，其次是人口（12%）和基准死亡率（8%）的变化。年龄结构和 PM 浓度变化的贡献率在 PA 地区高于 NPA 地区。本研究结果深入了解了 PM 相关的过早死亡和环境不平等问题，为制定更加公平的清洁空气政策提供了信息，以实现中国的可持续发展目标。
