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OBJECTIVE: Air pollution is a global public health issue, with particulate matter (PM) being the pollutant with the greatest impact on health. The main objective of this article was to estimate the impact of mortality attributable to particulate pollution in the city of Valencia during the period 2015-2017. METHODS: The Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methodology from the Aphekom project was used. Scenarios of a 5 µg/m3 reduction in the annual mean concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 were employed, along with the assumption of meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations in effect during the study period, to estimate both short- and long-term impacts. RESULTS: The estimated average concentrations for 2015-2017 were 18.4 µg/m3 for PM10 and 12.3 µg/m3 for PM2.5. The short-term HIA, assuming a reduction of 5 µg/m3 in the averages, resulted in a total of 65.4 premature deaths that could be postponed during that period (21.8 annually), corresponding to a rate of 2.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. In the long term, if PM2.5 concentrations had been reduced by 5 µg/m3, 124 premature deaths could have been postponed annually. CONCLUSIONS: The annual average concentrations of these pollutants meet the limits set by European regulations. However, compared to WHO recommendations, PM2.5 levels are higher by 2.3 µg/m3. An air quality scenario in line with WHO recommendations would have resulted in a reduction of 122 premature deaths annually.

OBJETIVO: La contaminación del aire es un problema de Salud Pública de importancia global, siendo las partículas en suspensión (PM) el contaminante con mayor impacto en la salud. El objetivo principal de este artículo fue estimar el impacto en mortalidad atribuible a la contaminación por partículas en la ciudad de València en el periodo 2015-2017. METODOS: Se utilizó la metodología para la Evaluación del Impacto en Salud (EIS) del proyecto Aphekom. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo y para la correlación se emplearon los escenarios de reducción de la media anual de 5 µg/m3 en la concentración de PM10 y de PM2,5 y el supuesto de cumplir las recomendaciones de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) vigentes en el periodo a estudio para estimar el impacto a corto y largo plazo. RESULTADOS: Las concentraciones estimadas del promedio 2015-2017 para PM10 y PM2,5 fueron de 18,4 µg/m3 y 12,3 µg/m3, respectivamente. La EIS a corto plazo, en el supuesto de reducir en 5 µg/m3 las medias, tuvo como resultado un total de 65,4 muertes prematuras que se podrían posponer en ese periodo (21,8 anuales), correspondiendo con una tasa de 2,8 defunciones por cada 100.000 habitantes. A largo plazo, si se hubiesen reducido las concentraciones de PM2,5 en 5 µg/m3, se hubieran podido posponer 124 muertes prematuras anuales. CONCLUSIONES: Las concentraciones medias anuales de estos contaminantes se ajustan a los límites marcados por la normativa europea. Sin embargo, respecto a las recomendaciones de la OMS, los niveles de PM2,5 son superiores en 2,3 µg/m3. Un escenario de calidad del aire conforme a las recomendaciones de la OMS se hubiera traducido en una reducción de 122 defunciones prematuras anuales.

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Over the past century, the Earth's climate has undergone rapid and unprecedented changes, manifested in a noticeable increase in average global temperature. This has led to shifts in precipitation patterns, increased frequency of extreme weather events (e.g. hurricanes, heatwaves, droughts and floods), alterations in ecosystems, and rising sea levels, impacting both natural environments and human societies, health and wellbeing. Without deep and urgent emission cuts and effective adaptation, the toll of climate change on human health and wellbeing is likely to grow. Here, we address the complex relationship between climate change and health, and discuss ways forward for transdisciplinary research and collaboration that can motivate more ambitious mitigation policies and help develop solutions to adapt to the crisis.

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This study aims to address accuracy challenges in assessing air pollution health impacts using Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMap), caused by limited meteorological factor data and missing pollutant data. By employing data increment strategies and multiple machine learning models, this research explores the effects of data volume, time steps, and meteorological factors on model prediction performance using several years of data from Tianjin City as an example. The findings indicate that increasing training data volume enhances the performance of Random Forest Regressor (RF) and Decision Tree Regressor (DT) models, especially for predicting CO, NO2, and PM2.5. The optimal prediction time step varies by pollutant, with the DT model achieving the highest R2 value (0.99) for CO and O3. Combining multiple meteorological factors, such as atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, and dew point temperature, significantly improves model accuracy. When using three meteorological factors, the model achieves an R2 of 0.99 for predicting CO, NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2. Health impact assessments using BenMap demonstrated that the predicted all-cause mortality and specific disease mortalities were highly consistent with actual values, confirming the model's accuracy in assessing health impacts from air pollution. For instance, the predicted and actual all-cause mortality for PM2.5 were both 3120; for cardiovascular disease, both were 1560; and for respiratory disease, both were 780. To validate its generalizability, this method was applied to Chengdu, China, using several years of data for training and prediction of PM2.5, CO, NO2, O3, PM10, and SO2, incorporating atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, and dew point temperature. The model maintained excellent performance, confirming its broad applicability. Overall, we conclude that the machine learning and BenMap-based methods show high accuracy and reliability in predicting air pollutant concentrations and health impacts, providing a valuable reference for air pollution assessment.

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The June 25, 2024 Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union is based on the Industrial Emissions (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) Directive 2010/75/EU and confirms its applicability to the Taranto steel plant, reiterating that the concept of pollution includes damage to the environment and human health; the health impact assessment of polluting industrial activities, such as the Ilva steelworks in Southern Italy, must constitute an internal act in the procedures for granting and reviewing the operating permission; all pollutants attributable to the plant that are scientifically recognized as harmful to health must be considered in the assessment procedures. In the case of serious and significant danger to the integrity of the environment and human health, the operation of the installation must be suspended. The Judgment highlights important elements on the level of principle and application, which are extraordinarily useful for environment and health personnel, for open-minded and aware local, regional, and national administrators, and above all for the citizens and communities most exposed to pollutants recognized as harmful to health. Preventive environmental health impact assessments gain renewed strength as tools for evaluative and authorized decision-making on production activities, in a sense of full integration between environment and health. The right to environmental and health protection and prevention is an integral part of the defence of human rights, especially in sacrifice zones such as Taranto and many other sites to be reclaimed, considered by the UN as "places where residents suffer devastating physical and mental health consequences and human rights violations".

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Previous studies on the relationship between urban form and air quality: (1) report mixed results among specific aspects of urban spatial structure (e.g., urban expansion, form, or shape) and (2) use primarily cross-sectional approaches with a single year of data. This study takes advantage of a multi-decade, longitudinal approach to investigate the impact of urban spatial structure on population-weighted concentrations of PM2.5 and NO2. Based on fixed-effect regression models for 481 urban areas in the United States spanning from 1990 to 2015, we found significant associations between various aspects of urban spatial structure and air quality after controlling for meteorological and socio-economic factors. Our results show that population density, compact urban form, circularity, and green space are associated with lower concentrations. Conversely, higher rates of urban expansion, industrial area, and polycentricity are associated with higher concentrations. For large cities (total population: 180,262,404), we found that increasing key factors from each urban spatial structure category (i.e., greenness, population density, compactness, circularity) by a modest 10% results in 10,387 (12,376) fewer deaths for PM2.5 (NO2). We recommend that policymakers adopt comprehensive strategies to increase population density, compactness, and green spaces while slowing urban expansion to reduce the health burden of air quality in US cities.

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This study introduces a novel integrated quantitative modeling framework to assess the multiple environmental, health, and economic benefits from implementing carbon capture technology in the power sector of Basra province, Iraq. This province is struggling with significant environmental challenges and air pollution caused by extensive oil extraction operations. First, the developed modeling framework quantifies the captured CO2 emissions and the equivalent avoided PM2.5 emissions resulting from the use of carbon capture units in existing power plants. This is achieved through a detailed simulation of the monoethanolamine (MEA) capture process using Aspen. Second, the impact of avoided PM2.5 exposure on public health is evaluated by developing and applying a dynamic dispersion model across the districts where the power plants are located. Third, it quantifies the expected health benefits, using the health impact assessment method. This method is based on a comprehensive meta-analysis of concentration-response functions, and it utilizes a Recurrent Neural Network prediction framework based on the Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) method to predict the relative risk value of six health outcomes. Finally, the economic value of avoided health burdens is estimated by employing the Value of Statistical Life (VSL) and the Cost of Illness (COI) approaches. According to the findings, implementing new carbon capture units in the selected power plants in the area will lead to a reduction of 7.697 million tons of carbon dioxide per year in the total emission of pollutants from the current power generation units in the region. The integrated assessment results demonstrate a significant reduction in PM2.5 emissions, amounting to 2299 tons per year, leading to the avoidance of 1328 premature deaths and 217 hospital admissions, resulting in annual savings of $1846 million from the avoided mortalities and morbidities cases and creation of 29,607 green jobs in Basra Province.

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Objectives: Understanding and addressing how an individual's social, political, economic, and cultural context affects their ability to achieve optimal health is essential to designing and implementing interventions. Before evaluating two parenting programs, in partnership with four children's mental health organizations, we used the Health Equity Impact Assessment tool (HEIA) to identify groups that may experience unintended health impacts, as well as generated mitigation strategies to address these impacts. Methods: HEIA activities included a review of the published literature, a review of organizational documents, key informant interviews with staff (n = 12) and other related community service providers (n = 7), and a geographic information systems analysis. All sources of evidence were considered and analyzed using reflective thematic analysis. Summary reports were shared with all partners. Results: A range of groups were identified as at risk of experiencing unintended health impacts, including caregivers who are racialized, immigrants, Indigenous, living with mental health issues or addictions, dealing with intellectual challenges and/or low literacy levels, survivors of childhood trauma, single parent families, or families experiencing financial difficulties. Unintended health impacts were sorted into 6 main themes which fell under the overarching themes of accessibility of the programs and cultural appropriateness. Mitigation strategies as well as innovative strategies already being applied by participating organizations are discussed. Conclusion: Although this HEIA focused on parenting programs, the findings address equity issues applicable to the provision of a wide spectrum of children's mental health services.

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OBJECTIVES: Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is an evidence-based approach to assess the likely public health impacts of a policy or plan in any sector. Several HIA frameworks are available to guide practitioners doing a HIA. This systematic review sought to determine whether these support practitioners to meet best practice principles defined by the International Association for Impact Assessment. STUDY DESIGN: This was a systematic review. METHODS: Three complementary search strategies were used to identify frameworks in June 2022. We used three databases to find completed HIAs published in the last five years and hand-searched their reference lists for frameworks. We also searched 23 HIA repositories using Google's Advanced function and contacted HIA practitioners via two international mailing lists. We used a bespoke quality appraisal tool to assess frameworks against the principles. RESULTS: The search identified 24 HIA frameworks. None of the frameworks achieved a 'good' rating for all best practice principles. Many identified the principles but did not provide guidance on how to meet them at all HIA steps. The highest number of frameworks were rated 'good' for ethical use of evidence and comprehensive approach to health (n = 15). Eight frameworks were rated as 'good' for participation, and two for equity. The highest number of frameworks rated 'poor' for sustainability (n = 11). CONCLUSIONS: There is marked variation in the degree to which HIA frameworks support the best practice principles. HIA practitioners could select elements from different frameworks for practical guidance to meet all the best practice principles.

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BACKGROUND: Shipping contributes to air pollution causing adverse health effects. We conducted for the first time a systematic review on the health and economic impacts of ambient air pollution from shipping emissions. METHODS: We performed a systematic search in PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO (Medline), and Scopus of all time up to December 2023. We then inter-compared semi-quantitatively the results of the included eligible studies. RESULTS: We identified 23 eligible studies, 22 applying health impact assessment, and 1 using epidemiological methods. These studies used different methods for the evaluation of emissions, dispersion, and exposure, and for the exposure-mortality risk functions for exposure to shipping emissions for 1-2 years. The estimated excess global all-cause mortality from six studies ranged between 1 and 5 deaths per 100,000 person-years. However, the heterogeneity of the methods and critical gaps in the reporting seriously limited the synthesis of the evidence on health and economic effects of shipping emissions. Sufficient spatial and temporal resolutions in both dispersion and exposure modeling, as well as presentation of uncertainties is needed. Health impact assessment should present the results with all the main risk functions and population attributable risks, and the magnitude of the effect should be expressed in excess number per a given person-time or per population size. Economic effects should also cover work productivity, mental well-being, and cognitive functions. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend that future studies should properly evaluate and report the uncertainty ranges and the confidence limits of the results. Rigorous studies are needed on multipollutant exposures, exposures from various source categories, and exposures attributed to various particulate matter measures. Studies should report the health impact measures in a format that facilitates straightforward inter-study comparisons. Further research should also specifically report the used grid spacings and resolutions and evaluate whether these are optimal for the task.

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OBJECTIVES: We propose a general framework for estimating long-term health and economic effects that takes into account four time-related aspects. We apply it to a reduction in exposure to air pollution in the Canton of Geneva. STUDY DESIGN: Methodological developments on the evaluation of long-term economic and health benefits, with an empirical illustration. METHODS: We propose a unified framework-the comprehensive impact assessment (CIA)-to assess the long-term effects of morbidity and mortality in health and economic terms. This framework takes full account of four time-related issues: cessation lag, policy/technical implementation timeframe, discounting and time horizon. We compare its results with those obtained from standard quantitative health impact assessment (QHIA) in an empirical illustration involving air pollution reduction in the canton of Geneva. RESULTS: We find that by neglecting time issues, the QHIA estimates greater health and economic benefits than the CIA. The overestimation is about 50% under reasonable assumptions and increases ceteris paribus with the magnitude of the cessation lag and the discount factor. It decreases both with the time horizon and with the implementation timeframe. CONCLUSION: A proper evaluation of long-term health and economic effects is an important issue when they are to be used in cost-benefit analyses, particularly for mortality, which often represents the largest fraction. We recommend using the CIA to calculate more accurate values.

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Poor air quality is the largest environmental health risk in England. In the West Midlands, UK, ∼2.9 million people are affected by air pollution with an average loss in life expectancy of up to 6 months. The 2021 Environment Act established a legal framework for local authorities in England to develop regional air quality plans, generating a policy need for predictive environmental impact assessment tools. In this context, we developed a novel Air Quality Lifecourse Assessment Tool (AQ-LAT) to estimate electoral ward-level impacts of PM2.5 and NO2 exposure on outcomes of interest to local authorities, namely morbidity (asthma, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, lung cancer), mortality, and associated healthcare costs. We apply the Tool to assess the health economic burden of air pollutant exposure and estimate benefits that would be generated by meeting WHO 2021 Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) (annual average concentrations) for NO2 (10 µg/m3) and PM2.5 (5 µg/m3) in the West Midlands Combined Authority Area. All West Midlands residents live in areas which exceed WHO AQGs, with 2070 deaths, 2070 asthma diagnoses, 770 CHD diagnoses, 170 lung cancers and 650 strokes attributable to air pollution exposure annually. Reducing PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations to WHO AQGs would save 10,700 lives reducing regional mortality by 1.8%, gaining 92,000 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and preventing 20,500 asthma, 7400 CHD, 1400 lung cancer, and 5700 stroke diagnoses, with economic benefits of £3.2 billion over 20 years. Significantly, we estimate 30% of QALY gains relate to reduced disease burden. The AQ-LAT has major potential to be replicated across local authorities in England and applied to inform regional investment decisions.

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Residential segregation drives exposure and health inequities. We projected the mortality impacts among low-income residents of leveraging an existing 10% affordable housing target as a case study of desegregation policy. We simulated movement into newly allocated housing, quantified changes in six ambient environmental exposures, and used exposure-response functions to estimate deaths averted. Across 1000 simulations, in one year, we found on average 169 (95% CI: 84, 255) deaths averted from changes in greenness, 71 (49, 94) deaths averted from NO2, 9 (4, 14) deaths averted from noise, 1 (1, 2) excess death from O3, and 2 (1, 2) excess deaths from PM2.5, with rates of deaths averted highest among non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White residents. Strengthening desegregation policy may advance environmental health equity.

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The objective of this study is to evaluate long-term changes in the level of exposure to NO2 among the population living in the urban area of Naples (south Italy). This has been achieved by integrating data from the regional reference monitoring network with information collected during the citizen science initiative called 'NO2, NO grazie!' conducted in February 2020 and coordinated by the Non-Governmental Organisation 'Cittadini per l'aria'. This citizen science campaign was based on low-cost passive samplers (Palmes tubes), providing the ability to obtain unprecedented high-resolution NO2 levels. Using a Land Use Random Forest (LURF), we extrapolated the experimental data obtained from the citizen science campaign and evaluated the changes in population exposure from 2013 to 2022 and the uncertainty associated with this assessment was quantified. The results indicate that a large proportion of the inhabitants of Naples are still exposed to high NO2 concentrations, even if strict emission containment measures are enforced. The average levels remain higher than the new interim and air quality targets suggested by the World Health Organisation. The implementation of co-created citizen science projects, where NGO and citizens actively participate alongside scientists, can significantly improve the estimation and the interpretation of official reference data.

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Background: Promoting active modes of transportation such as cycling may generate important public health, economic, and climate mitigation benefits. We aim to assess the mortality and morbidity impacts of cycling in a country with relatively low levels of cycling, France, along with associated monetary benefits. We further assess the potential additional benefits of shifting a portion of short trips from cars to bikes, including projected greenhouse gas emissions savings. Methods: Using individual data from a nationally representative mobility survey, we described the French 2019 cycling levels by age and sex. We conducted a burden of disease analysis to assess the incidence of five chronic diseases (breast cancer, colon cancer, cardiovascular diseases, dementia, and type-2 diabetes) and the number of deaths prevented by cycling, based on national incidence and mortality data and dose-response relationships from meta-analyses. We assessed the corresponding direct medical cost savings and the intangible costs prevented based on the value of a statistical life year. Lastly, based on individual simulations, we assessed the likely additional benefits of shifting 25% of short (<5 km) car trips to cycling. Findings: The French adult (20-89 years) population was estimated to cycle on average 1 min 17 sec pers-1 day-1 in 2019, with important heterogeneity across sex and age. This yielded benefits of 1,919 (uncertainty interval, UI: 1,101-2,736) premature deaths and 5,963 (UI: 3,178-8,749) chronic disease cases prevented, with males reaping nearly 75% of these benefits. Direct medical costs prevented were estimated at €191 million (UI: 98-285) annually, while the corresponding intangible costs were nearly 25 times higher (€4.8 billion, UI: 3.0-6.5). We estimated that on average, €1.02 (UI: 0.59-1.62) of intangible costs were prevented for every km cycled. Shifting 25% of short car trips to cycling would yield approximatively a 2-fold increase in deaths prevented, while also generating important CO2 emissions reductions (0.257 MtCO2e, UI: 0.231-0.288). Interpretation: In a country with a low- to moderate-cycling culture, cycling already generates important public health and health-related economic benefits. Further development of active transportation would increase these benefits while also contributing to climate change mitigation targets. Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Environmental impact assessment (EIA) performance has remained of interest, and over the past ten years, the evaluation technique has evolved. Thailand implemented an EIA with a health impact assessment (HIA) as an environmental health impact assessment (EHIA), which necessitated investigating and developing these instruments; however, its implementation performance has been questioned. The main goal of this study is to comparatively assess how well EIAs and EHIAs are performed in projects in an area in Thailand. Six projects in various sectors that were implemented in Eastern Thailand were studied. The 162 residents (nine local authorities and 153 villagers) closest to the project completed a survey and evaluated the performance according to three aspects (i.e., substantive, procedural, and transactive), using a rating scale and evaluation checklists. The results were presented as a percentage of the total scores and interpreted according to the five scales. The overall performance reached a satisfactory level, albeit not significantly different between cases; however, it was pointed out that the shortcomings of EHIAs and EIAs, particularly their dependability, lack of public involvement, and the need for more transparency, could be addressed through the establishment of an open access database, which would help to simplify the assessment of all stages of EIAs and EHIAs.

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Objectives: In 2008, an analysis investigating health impact assessment (HIA) practice found that only 6% of HIA-related peer-reviewed publications had a focus on low- and medium-developed countries, whereas 94% were conducted in countries with a high or very high development state. We aimed to update and deepen these observations. Methods: We conducted a systematic review, searching PubMed and Web of Science for HIA-related papers published in the scientific literature from June 2007 to January 2023. Only applied HIA and papers with HIA as a subject were included. Results: The search yielded 3,036 publications and the final selection consisted of 1,019 publications. The annual number of total publications increased considerably over the past 15 years. Whereas research-driven HIA (n = 460) showed a steep increase, step-by-step HIA (n = 71) did not show a clear trend. Conclusion: The gap between the number of HIA-related peer-reviewed publications focusing on low/medium and high/very high developed countries has diminished from 6/94 to 11/89. There is a growing tendency to apply the terminology HIA for health impact modelling studies and quantitative health risk assessments.

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Objective: Climate change is recognised as the biggest threat to global health of the 21st century and impacts on health and wellbeing through a range of factors. Due to this, the need to take action in order to protect population health and wellbeing is becoming ever more urgent. Methods: In 2019, Public Health Wales carried out a comprehensive mixed-method Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of climate change. Unlike other risk assessments, it appraised the potential impact of climate change on health and inequalities in Wales through participatory workshops, stakeholder consultations, systematic literature reviews and case studies. Results: The HIA findings indicate potential impacts across the wider determinants of health and wellbeing. For example, air quality, excess heat/cold, flooding, economic productivity, infrastructure, and community resilience. A range of impacts were identified across population groups, settings, and geographical areas. Conclusion: These findings can inform decision-makers to prepare for climate change plans and policies using an evidence-informed approach. The work has demonstrated the value of a HIA approach by mobilising a range of evidence through a transparent process, resulting in transferrable learning for others.

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INTRODUCTION: Infection prevention and control (IPC) is imperative towards patient safety and health. The Infection Prevention and Control Assessment Framework (IPCAF) developed by WHO provides a baseline assessment at the acute healthcare facility level. This study aimed to assess the existing IPC level of selected public sector hospital facilities in Punjab to explore their strengths and deficits. METHODS: Between October and April 2023, 11 public sector hospitals (including tertiary, secondary and primary level care) were selected. Data were collected using the IPCAF assessment tool comprising eight sections, which were then categorised into four distinct IPC levels- inadequate, basic, intermediate and advanced. Key performance metrics were summarised within and between hospitals. RESULTS: The overall median IPCAF score for the public sector hospitals was 532.5 (IQR: 292.5-690) out of 800. Four hospitals each scored 'advanced' as well as 'basic' IPC level and three hospitals fell into 'intermediate level'. Most hospitals had IPC guidelines as well as IPC programme, environments, materials and equipments. Although 90% of secondary care hospitals had IPC education and training, only 2 out of 5 (40%) tertiary care and 2 out of 3 (67%) primary care hospitals have IPC or additional experts for training. Only 1 out of 5 tertiary care hospitals (20%) were recorded in an agreed ratio of healthcare workers to patients while 2 out of 5 (40%) of these hospitals lack staffing need assessment. CONCLUSION: Overall the sampled public sector (tertiary, secondary and primary) hospitals demonstrated satisfactory IPC level. Challenging areas are the healthcare-associated infection surveillance, monitoring/audit and staffing, bed occupancy overall in all the three categories of hospitals. Periodic training and assessment can facilitate improvement in public sector systems.

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OBJECTIVES: Excess mortality associated with long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been documented. However, research on the disease burden following short-term exposure is scarce. We investigated the cause-specific mortality burden of short-term exposure to PM2.5 by considering the potential non-linear concentration-response relationship in Korea. METHODS: Daily cause-specific mortality rates and PM2.5 exposure levels from 2010 to 2019 were collected for 8 Korean cities and 9 provinces. A generalized additive mixed model was employed to estimate the non-linear relationship between PM2.5 exposure and cause-specific mortality levels. We assumed no detrimental health effects of PM2.5 concentrations below 15 µg/m3. Overall deaths attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure were estimated by summing the daily numbers of excess deaths associated with ambient PM2.5 exposure. RESULTS: Of the 2 749 704 recorded deaths, 2 453 686 (89.2%) were non-accidental, 591 267 (21.5%) were cardiovascular, and 141 066 (5.1%) were respiratory in nature. A non-linear relationship was observed between all-cause mortality and exposure to PM2.5 at lag0, whereas linear associations were evident for cause-specific mortalities. Overall, 10 814 all-cause, 7855 non-accidental, 1642 cardiovascular, and 708 respiratory deaths were attributed to short-term exposure to PM2.5. The estimated number of all-cause excess deaths due to short-term PM2.5 exposure in 2019 was 1039 (95% confidence interval, 604 to 1472). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate an association between short-term PM2.5 exposure and various mortality rates (all-cause, non-accidental, cardiovascular, and respiratory) in Korea over the period from 2010 to 2019. Consequently, action plans should be developed to reduce deaths attributable to short-term exposure to PM2.5.

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