Health Risk and Resilience Assessment with Respect to the Main Air Pollutants in Sichuan

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries have caused an increase in air pollutant concentrations, and this has attracted public concern due to the resulting harmful effects to health. Here we present, through the spatial-temporal characteristics of six criteria air pollutants (PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, CO, and O₃) in Sichuan, a human health risk assessment framework conducted to evaluate the health risk of different age groups caused by ambient air pollutants. Public health resilience was evaluated with respect to the risk resulting from ambient air pollutants, and a spatial inequality analysis between the risk caused by ambient air pollutants and hospital density in Sichuan was performed based on the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient. The results indicated that high concentrations of PM_2.5 (47.7 μg m⁻³) and PM₁₀ (75.9 μg m⁻³) were observed in the Sichuan Basin; these two air pollutants posed a high risk to infants. The high risk caused by PM_2.5 was mainly distributed in Sichuan Basin (1.14) and that caused by PM₁₀ was principally distributed in Zigong (1.01). Additionally, the infants in Aba and Ganzi had high health resilience to the risk caused by PM_2.5 (3.89 and 4.79, respectively) and PM₁₀ (3.28 and 2.77, respectively), which was explained by the low risk in these two regions. These regions and Sichuan had severe spatial inequality between the infant hazard quotient caused by PM_2.5 (G = 0.518, G = 0.493, and G = 0.456, respectively) and hospital density. This spatial inequality was also caused by PM₁₀ (G = 0.525, G = 0.526, and G = 0.466, respectively), which is mainly attributed to the imbalance between hospital distribution and risk caused by PM_2.5 (PM₁₀) in these two areas. Such research could provide a basis for the formulation of medical construction and future air pollution control measures in Sichuan. View Full-Text