Health Risks Forecast of Regional Air Pollution on Allergic Rhinitis: High-Resolution City-Scale Simulations in Changchun, China

Abstract

Accurate assessments of exposure to urban air pollution with higher traffic emissions and its health risks still face several challenges, such as intensive computation of air pollution modeling and the limited availability of personal activity data. The macroscopic health effects can be transmitted to the whole population for personal prevention via air quality health index (AQHI), but the possibility risk index of the specific allergic diseases is still lacking. This interdisciplinary study aims at evaluating the forecasted results of high-resolution air quality with updated traffic emissions and accessing the potential impacts of outdoor pollution on morbidity of rhinitis for urban residents. A high-resolution modelling system (1 km × 1 km) containing the online traffic emission model (VEIN), meteorological and air quality model (WRF-CHIMERE) and the health impact module was developed. A new health index of Potential Morbidity Risk Index (PMRI) was further established using higher resolution health risk coefficients of major air pollutants on allergic rhinitis, and different methods (with/without considering population distributions) targeting different user groups (residents, hospitals and health administrations) were calculated and analyzed. Operational forecasted results of hourly PMRI can be further combined with online map services to serve as an effective tool for patients with allergic rhinitis to arrange their daily activities so as to avoid acute exacerbation. The forecasted PMRIs accessible to the public will also be beneficial for the public health administrations in planning the medical resource and improving the outpatient efficiency.