The effect of exposure to ambient air pollutants on cardiovascular mortality in Arak, Iran

Background: Air pollution is one of the most critical environmental problems around the world. Objectives: This study aimed to estimate cardiovascular mortality related to NO2, PM10, SO2, and O3 concentrations in Arak in 2014. Methods: This ecological study was performed on 599634 participants. Data about air pollutant concentrations, including NO2, PM10, SO2, and O3, in the urban population of Arak in 2014 were obtained from Arak Environment Department. Cardiovascular mortality related to air pollutant exposure was estimated using Baseline Incidences (BI) and Relative Risks (RR) based on the World Health Organization (WHO) databases and time-series and case-crossover studies about the association between air pollutants and health outcomes and using the AirQ2.2.3 software. Results: The results showed that the annual average concentrations of PM10, NO2, O3, and SO2 were 69, 38, 57, and 53 µg/m3, respectively during the study period. In addition, the number of excess cases for cardiovascular mortality in the central RR was 138, 100, 55, and 16 for PM10, SO2, O3, and NO2, respectively. The cumulative number of cardiovascular mortality due to exposure to NO2 (RR = 1.00, 1.002, and 1.004) was 16, while this measure was 55 for cardiovascular mortality due to O3 (RR = 1.00, 1.004, and 1.006). Conclusions: This study showed that PM10 and SO2 had the highest adverse health effects in relation to cardiovascular mortality in Arak. This necessitates important and vital measures and planning by national and international officials. © 2020, Iranian Cardiovascular Research Journal. All rights reserved