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Study of the Effects of Air Pollutants on Human Health Based on Baidu Indices of Disease Symptoms and Air Quality Monitoring Data in Beijing, China

Author

Listed:
  • Shaobo Zhong

    (Beijing Research Center of Urban Systems Engineering, Beijing 100035, China)

  • Zhichen Yu

    (Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Wei Zhu

    (Beijing Research Center of Urban Systems Engineering, Beijing 100035, China)

Abstract

There is an increasing body of evidence showing the impact of air pollutants on human health such as on the respiratory, and cardio- and cerebrovascular systems. In China, as people begin to pay more attention to air quality, recent research focused on the quantitative assessment of the effects of air pollutants on human health. To assess the health effects of air pollutants and to construct an indicator placing emphasis on health impact, a generalized additive model was selected to assess the health burden caused by air pollution. We obtained Baidu indices (an evaluation indicator launched by Baidu Corporation to reflect the search popularity of keywords from its search engine) to assess daily query frequencies of 25 keywords considered associated with air pollution-related diseases. Moreover, we also calculated the daily concentrations of major air pollutants (including PM 10 , PM 2.5 , SO 2 , O 3 , NO 2 , and CO) and the daily air quality index (AQI) values, and three meteorological factors: daily mean wind level, daily mean air temperature, and daily mean relative humidity. These data cover the area of Beijing from 1 March 2015 to 30 April 2017. Through the analysis, we produced the relative risks (RRs) of the six main air pollutants for respiratory, and cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases. The results showed that O 3 and NO 2 have the highest health impact, followed by PM 10 and PM 2.5 . The effects of any pollutant on cardiovascular diseases was consistently higher than on respiratory diseases. Furthermore, we evaluated the currently used AQI in China and proposed an RR-based index (health AQI, HAQI) that is intended for better indicating the effects of air pollutants on respiratory, and cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases than AQI. A higher Pearson correlation coefficient between HAQI and RR Total than that between AQI and RR Total endorsed our efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaobo Zhong & Zhichen Yu & Wei Zhu, 2019. "Study of the Effects of Air Pollutants on Human Health Based on Baidu Indices of Disease Symptoms and Air Quality Monitoring Data in Beijing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-19, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:6:p:1014-:d:215604
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Hung-Ta Wen & Jau-Huai Lu & Deng-Siang Jhang, 2021. "Features Importance Analysis of Diesel Vehicles’ NO x and CO 2 Emission Predictions in Real Road Driving Based on Gradient Boosting Regression Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-28, December.
    2. Daxin Dong & Xiaowei Xu & Wen Xu & Junye Xie, 2019. "The Relationship Between the Actual Level of Air Pollution and Residents’ Concern about Air Pollution: Evidence from Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Zhujun Dai & Duanyang Liu & Kun Yu & Lu Cao & Youshan Jiang, 2020. "Meteorological Variables and Synoptic Patterns Associated with Air Pollutions in Eastern China during 2013–2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-19, April.
    4. Chaosu Li & Yan Song & Li Tian & Wei Ouyang, 2020. "Urban Form, Air Quality, and Cardiorespiratory Mortality: A Path Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-14, February.

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