Mitigating GHGs in developing countries.
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Air Pollution↗
Biomedical subjects
K Aunan
Publications and source records attributed to K Aunan.
Health and environmental benefits from air pollution reductions in Hungary.
The aim of this study was to assess the cost and benefit of the implementation of a specific energy saving program in Hungary. We have considered the possible reduced damage to public health, building materials and agricultural crops that may be obtained from reducing emissions of important air pollutants and also how the program contributes to reduced emissions of greenhouse gases. The measures are described in the National Energy Efficiency Improvement and Energy Conservation Programs (NEEIECP), elaborated by the Hungarian Ministry of Industry and Trade and accepted by the Government in 1994. The energy saving expected from the program is approximately 64 PJ/year. The benefits were estimated using monitoring data and population/recipient data from urban and rural areas in Hungary together with exposure-response functions and valuation estimates mainly from western studies. Our analysis indicates that the main benefit from reducing the concentrations of pollutants relates to public health and that reduced prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases is an important effect. Reduced premature mortality is also important and the estimated attributable risk of air pollution to excess mortality at present is approximately 6%. The estimated annual benefit of improved health conditions alone is likely to exceed the investments needed to implement the program. In addition there are significant benefits due to reduced replacement and maintenance costs for building materials (30-35 million US$ annually in Budapest only). The damage to crops due to ozone is large, but a significant improvement in Hungary depends upon concerted actions in several countries.
Agriculture↗
Exposure-response functions for health effects of air pollutants based on epidemiological findings.
Quantitative knowledge about health damage due to air pollution is an important element in analyses of cost-effective abatement strategies, and is also essential for setting Air Quality Standards. Epidemiological studies, in spite of the numerous problems connected to them, provide a reasonable basis for exposure-response functions in this context. On the basis of a literature review, exposure-response functions that relate ambient air pollutant concentrations to the frequency of various health effects are recommended in this paper. The following end-points were examined: Acute and chronic respiratory symptoms in children and adults, crude mortality, and lung cancer incidence. The effects are attributed to one indicator component, which in most cases is particles. A calculation procedure is suggested which makes it possible to estimate excess annual symptom-days for short-term effects using the annual average concentration.
Acute Disease↗