Health Impact of PM10, PM2.5 and Black Carbon Exposure Due to Different Source Sectors in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Umea, Sweden

TLDR

Primary particulate matter in Europe mainly originates from road‑traffic exhaust, non‑exhaust emissions, and solid biomass combustion, and evidence shows that PM has detrimental health effects regardless of source, making the choice of metric and exposure‑response function a key issue in health impact assessments. The study aims to describe sectorial contributions to PM exposure and related premature mortality in Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Umeå. High‑resolution atmospheric dispersion models were used to calculate exposure, and premature mortality was attributed separately to local sources and long‑range transport using different relative risks. The analysis shows that long‑range transport dominates overall exposure, but local sources are equally or more important for black carbon, and that most premature deaths are linked to local emissions—especially road traffic and residential wood combustion—highlighting the need to resolve within‑city gradients and the strong potential of local emission controls.

Abstract

The most important anthropogenic sources of primary particulate matter (PM) in ambient air in Europe are exhaust and non-exhaust emissions from road traffic and combustion of solid biomass. There is convincing evidence that PM, almost regardless of source, has detrimental health effects. An important issue in health impact assessments is what metric, indicator and exposure-response function to use for different types of PM. The aim of this study is to describe sectorial contributions to PM exposure and related premature mortality for three Swedish cities: Gothenburg, Stockholm and Umea. Exposure is calculated with high spatial resolution using atmospheric dispersion models. Attributed premature mortality is calculated separately for the main local sources and the contribution from long-range transport (LRT), applying different relative risks. In general, the main part of the exposure is due to LRT, while for black carbon, the local sources are equally or more important. The major part of the premature deaths is in our assessment related to local emissions, with road traffic and residential wood combustion having the largest impact. This emphasizes the importance to resolve within-city concentration gradients when assessing exposure. It also implies that control actions on local PM emissions have a strong potential in abatement strategies.