Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec 1:11:1286755.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1286755. eCollection 2023.

PM2.5 pollution in Texas: a geospatial analysis of health impact functions

Luke Bryan  1 , Philip Landrigan  1   2
Affiliations

PM2.5 pollution in Texas: a geospatial analysis of health impact functions

Luke Bryan et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to human health in the world today and is responsible for an estimated 7-9 million deaths annually. One of the most damaging air pollutants is PM2.5 pollution, fine airborne particulate matter under 2.5 microns in diameter. Exposure to PM2.5 pollution can cause premature death, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, diabetes, asthma, low birthweight, and IQ loss. To avoid these adverse health effects, the WHO recommends that PM2.5 levels not exceed 5 μg/m3.

Methods: This study estimates the negative health impacts of PM2.5 pollution in Texas in 2016. Local exposure estimates were calculated at the census tract level using the EPA's BenMAP-CE software. In BenMAP, a variety of exposure-response functions combine air pollution exposure data with population data and county-level disease and death data to estimate the number of health effects attributable to PM2.5 pollution for each census tract. The health effects investigated were mortality, low birthweight, stroke, new onset asthma, new onset Alzheimer's, and non-fatal lung cancer.

Findings: This study found that approximately 26.7 million (98.9%) of the 27.0 million people living in Texas in 2016 resided in areas where PM2.5 concentrations were above the WHO recommendation of 5 μg/m3, and that 2.6 million people (9.8%) lived in areas where the average PM2.5 concentration exceeded 10 μg/m3. This study estimates that there were 8,405 (confidence interval [CI], 5,674-11,033) premature deaths due to PM2.5 pollution in Texas in 2016, comprising 4.3% of all deaths. Statewide increases in air-pollution-related morbidity and mortality were seen for stroke (2,209 - CI: [576, 3,776]), low birthweight (2,841 - CI: [1,696, 3,925]), non-fatal lung cancers (636 - CI: [219, 980]), new onset Alzheimer's disease (24,575 - CI: [20,800, 27,540]), and new onset asthma (7,823 - CI: [7,557, 8,079]).

Conclusion: This study found that air pollution poses significant risks to the health of Texans, despite the fact that pollution levels across most of the state comply with the EPA standard for PM2.5 pollution of 12 μg/m3. Improving air quality in Texas could save thousands of lives from disease, disability, and premature death.

Keywords: PM2.5; Texas; air pollution; census tracts; county; health impact functions; particulate matter.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Texas PM2.5 concentrations (μg/m3) by census tract.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Landrigan PJ, Fuller R, Acosta NJ, Adeyi O, Arnold R, Basu N(N), et al. . The lancet commission on pollution and health. Lancet. (2017) 391:462–512. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32345-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bowe B, Xie Y, Yan Y, Al-Aly Z. Burden of cause-specific mortality associated with PM2. 5 air pollution in the United States. JAMA Netw Open. (2019) 2:e1915834. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.15834, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Environmental Protection Agency . Criteria Air Pollutants. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/criteria-air-pollutants (accessed June 30, 2023).
    1. World Health Organization . (2021). Ambient air pollution: pollutants. World health Organization. Available at: https://who.int/airpollution/ambient/pollutants/ (accessed January 30, 2022).
    1. California Air Resources Board . Inhalable Particulate Matter and Health (PM25 and PM10). Available at: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/inhalable-particulate-matter-and-health (accessed June 30, 2023).

Publication types

Substances