Summary:
The Impact of Air Pollution on Health 2019, 2021 & 2022
The purpose of this Deliverable was to estimate the number of premature deaths (PDs) and years of life lost (YLL) from exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 by applying the concentration-response relationships and guideline levels from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The pollutant concentrations were obtained from the ATMO Street high-resolution annual assessment maps.
it was estimated that exposure to PM2.5 above the WHO-guideline level resulted in 400 and 800 premature deaths, and 4000 and 8800 years of life lost in Ireland in 2021 and 2022, respectively. These figures represent the premature deaths that could have been avoided if a PM2.5 concentration of 5 µg/m³ was achieved. The threshold of 5 µg/m³ is adopted from the updated European Environment Agency (EEA) method aligned with the latest WHO Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) of 2021.
Approximately 80 premature deaths and 900 years of life lost were attributed to NO2 exposure above the WHO-guideline in both 2021 and 2022. This finding underscores the severe health risks associated with PM2.5, which is much higher than for NO2.
The study concludes with a county-specific analysis in Ireland. The highest health effects from NO2 are observed in urban areas with dense traffic, such as in the Counties of Dublin, Louth (Drogheda), Cork, and Limerick. The impact of PM2.5, however, varies between counties and across different years, influenced by residential and to a lesser extent industrial emissions, and agricultural activities. These results underline the variability found for the impact of PM2.5 and it highlights the complexity and localised nature of air pollution and its associated health effects.
The same methodology as developed by the EEA was used and a comparison of the results for 2019, 2021 and 2022 with the officially reported values showed little difference. Differences are attributed to the different concentration maps that were used in each study. Regardless, the difference is within the uncertainty range of health effects calculations.