PM2.5-Related Health Economic Benefits Evaluation Based on Air Improvement Action Plan in Wuhan City, Middle China

On the basis of PM2.5 data of the national air quality monitoring sites, local population data, and baseline all-cause mortality rate, PM2.5-related health economic benefits of the Air Improvement Action Plan implemented in Wuhan in 2013–2017 were investigated using health-impact and valuation functions. Annual avoided premature deaths driven by the average concentration of PM2.5 decrease were evaluated, and the economic benefits were computed by using the value of statistical life (VSL) method. Results showed that the number of avoided premature deaths in Wuhan are 21,384 (95% confidence interval (CI): 15,004 to 27,255) during 2013–2017, due to the implementation of the Air Improvement Action Plan. According to the VSL method, the obtained economic benefits of Huangpi, Wuchang, Hongshan, Xinzhou, Jiang’an, Hanyang, Jiangxia, Qiaokou, Jianghan, Qingshan, Caidian, Dongxihu, and Hannan District were 8.55, 8.19, 8.04, 7.39, 5.78, 4.84, 4.37, 4.04, 3.90, 3.30, 2.87, 2.42, and 0.66 billion RMB (1 RMB = 0.1417 USD On 14 October 2019), respectively. These economic benefits added up to 64.35 billion RMB (95% CI: 45.15 to 82.02 billion RMB), accounting for 4.80% (95% CI: 3.37% to 6.12%) of the total GDP of Wuhan in 2017. Therefore, in the process of formulating a regional air quality improvement scheme, apart from establishing hierarchical emission-reduction standards and policies, policy makers should give integrated consideration to the relationship between regional economic development, environmental protection and residents’ health benefits. Furthermore, for improving air quality, air quality compensation mechanisms can be established on the basis of the status quo and trends of air quality, population distribution, and economic development factors.

Strictly require the access system of energy conservation and environmental protection and optimize industrial development structure Strict environmental access for construction projects Speed up the elimination of backward production capacity Optimize industrial development layout Establish ecological industrial parks 5 Accelerate the adjustment of energy structure and improve the utilization rate of clean energy Strictly control coal consumption Speed up the construction of high pollution fuel prohibition zone Improve energy utilization efficiency 6 Optimize urban spatial layout and build green ecological barrier Optimize the layout of urban ecological space Vigorously promote urban greening construction 7 Improve the emergency system of monitoring and early warning and properly deal with heavy polluted weather Improve the monitoring and early warning system Improve the emergency capacity of air pollution Actively promote joint prevention and control of regional air pollution 8 Improve the system of environmental protection laws and policies, and innovate the management mechanism of environmental protection Improve local atmospheric environmental protection laws and regulations Improve environment economic policy Strengthen environmental supervision and law enforcement Innovate environmental management system 9 Enhance scientific and technological supports, and strengthen environmental protection industry Improve the scientific and technological support capacity of air pollution prevention and control Strengthen the research, development and promotion of air pollution control technologies in key areas Vigorously cultivate energy conservation and environmental protection industry 10 Strengthen information publicity and public opinion guidance, and expand public participation Strengthening the publicity of government information Strengthen disclosure of corporate information Strengthen the guidance of public opinion including carrying out various forms of publicity and education, and popularizing the knowledge of air pollution prevention and control Actively expand public participation In addition, at the government level, there are three safeguards to promote air quality improvement. Strengthen organizational leadership and improve working mechanism; establish assessment system and strengthen responsibility assessment, and increase investment in governance and provide financial guarantee [1].
Section S2 Guidelines to Calculate Air Quality index (AQI)  [2]. Based on the concentration limits of six pollutants in Table S1, the IAQI can be calculated by Equation (1).
where IAQI p means the IAQI of pollutant p; C p means the concentration of pollutant p; BP Hi means the high value of limit value of pollutant concentration close to C p in Table S1; BP Lo means the low value of limit value of pollutant concentration close to C p in Table S1; IAQI Hi means the IAQI corresponding to BP Hi in Table S1；IAQI Lo means the IAQI corresponding to BP Lo in Table S1.
Then, using Equation (2) to select the maximum value of IAQI p as AQI.
Finally, the AQI level is determined according to the calculation result of Equation (2). Hoek et al., 2013 [10] By searching the studies on the health effects of atmospheric PM2.5 at home and abroad, increased for all-cause mortality", that means △PM is 10 and the value of RR is 1.0600 (95% CI: 1.0400, 1.0800), so β is 0.005827. Section S6 Impact of population structure on evaluating the long-term health economic benefits of controlling air pollution