Trends in air pollutants and health impacts in three swedish cities over the past three decades

This study estimates the health impacts associated with the time trends of NOx , NO2 , O3 and PM10 in the Swedish cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmoe from the 1990's until to 2015. The concentrations are based on measurements from central monitoring stations representing urban background levels, but corrections for population exposure have been performed in some cases. The trends are very different for the pollutants that have been studied; NOx and NO2 have been decreasing in all cities, O3 exhibits an increasing trend in all cities, and for PM10, there is a slowly decreasing trend in Stockholm, a slowly increasing trend in Gothenburg, and a non-significant trend in Malmoe. Impacts on the change in life expectancy at birth are calculated based on the trends and the relative risks associated with exposure to these pollutants. The calculations indicate that the life expectancy at birth has increased by 1.09, 0.49 and 0.57 years for the populations in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmoe, respectively, when using NO2 as indicator of the reduced air pollution exposure during the period 1990 – 2015. The increased O3 exposure, on the other hand, has caused a decrease in life expectancy by 0.17, 0.36 and 0.23 years for the populations in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmoe, respectively. Changes in PM10 exposure have had relatively small impacts on the change in life expectancy at birth.