Association between particulate matter and its chemical constituents of urban air pollution and daily mortality or morbidity in Beijing City

Recent time series studies have indicated that daily mortality and morbidity are associated with particulate matters. However, about the relative effects and its seasonal patterns of fine particulate matter constituents is particularly limited in developing Asian countries. In this study, we examined the role of particulate matters and its key chemical components of fine particles on both mortality and morbidity in Beijing. We applied several overdispersed Poisson generalized nonlinear models, adjusting for time, day of week, holiday, temperature, and relative humidity, to investigate the association between risk of mortality or morbidity and particulate matters and its constituents in Beijing, China, for January 2005 through December 2009. Particles and several constituents were associated with multiple mortality or morbidity categories, especially on respiratory health. For a 3-day lag, the nonaccident mortality increased by 1.52, 0.19, 1.03, 0.56, 0.42, and 0.32 % for particulate matter (PM)₂.₅, PM₁₀, K⁺, SO₄²⁻, Ca²⁺, and NO₃⁻ based on interquartile ranges of 36.00, 64.00, 0.41, 8.75, 1.43, and 2.24 μg/m³, respectively. The estimates of short-term effects for PM₂.₅ and its components in the cold season were 1 ~ 6 times higher than that in the full year on these health outcomes. Most of components had stronger adverse effects on human health in the heavy PM₂.₅ mass concentrations, especially for K⁺, NO₃⁻, and SO₄²⁻. This analysis added to the growing body of evidence linking PM₂.₅ with mortality or morbidity and indicated that excess risks may vary among specific PM₂.₅ components. Combustion-related products, traffic sources, vegetative burning, and crustal component and resuspended road dust may play a key role in the associations between air pollution and public health in Beijing.