Study of ground-level ozone and its health risk assessment in residents in Ahvaz City, Iran during 2013

Ozone is a highly oxidative compound and is one of the important pollutants present in the atmosphere and at ground level. Concentration of ground-level ozone (GLO) pollutant depends on different factors such as the amount of VOC and NOX, heat and location in the atmosphere. Ozone can cause health effects such as problems to breathe deeply and vigorously, inflame and damage the airways, bronchitis, reduced lung function in children and adults, emphysema and increase the frequency of asthma attacks. In this work, we focused on the determination of number of hospital admissions associated with ozone in Ahvaz with population of 1 000 000, during 2013. In this study, ozone data collections were through Iranian Environmental Protection Agency (Iranian EPA) and Meteorological Organization. Ozone data and meteorological parameters were used in Excel software to prepare input file of AirQ model. After running model, outputs presented in term of hospital admissions of ozone exposure were calculated. According to this study, “Havashenasi” and “Naderi” had the lowest and the highest ozone concentrations. Results of this study showed that if ozone concentrations were more than 20 μg/m3, approximately 12% hospital admissions were attributed by this pollutant. The results showed that the concentration of ozone was related to Ahvaz with an annual average of 223 μg/m3. Ozone concentration in Ahvaz was higher than standard. Mitigation measures in industries and transportation system in Ahvaz metropolitan is recommending to reduce the level of ozone in the ambient air. Changing the fuel process and using upgraded vehicles could be possibly very effective to diminish the impact of this pollutants on citizens