dc.description.abstract | This is the first study uses the software of BenMAP in Taiwan to investigate the impact of air quality on health, and further evaluates the benefits of air quality change. The study uses GIS shape files, air quality monitoring data, health impact function, population data, incidence data, and valuation function to measure the health benefits from the changes of the PM10, SO2, O3, and NO2 during the year of 1998 to 2008 in Taiwan.
The results show that the concentrations of PM10 and SO2 were declined substantially from 1998 to 2000. We also found that the level of air pollution measured by PM10 and SO2 are the most serious in 2004. The concentrations of O3 were increased year by year. When the control year is 2008 and have the highest level in 2008. The concentrations of NO2 were decreased during 1998 to 2008. In general, the concentrations of PM10 were increased, SO2 were decreased, O3 were increased substantially, and NO2 were decreased substantially from 1998 to 2008.
Our results demonstrate that the change of the O3 concentrations were the major reason which caused the increase of the cases of ARD and mortality. The great improvement of NO2 is the major reason which caused the decrease of the cases of ARD and mortality. Overall, our results show that the health benefits range from 66 million to 2 billion if the condition of air quality can be improved.
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