Reducing fine particulate to improve health: a health impact assessment for Taiwan

Recently various countries have adopted the new standards for PM(2.5) (particulate matter <2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter), but Taiwan still maintains an old set of air quality guidelines for particulate matter; therefore, the authors quantified the public health impact of long-term exposure to PM(2.5) in terms of attributable number of deaths and the potential gain in life expectancy by reducing PM(2.5) annual levels to 25, 20, 15, and 10 μg/m(3). When the guideline for PM(2.5) long-term exposure was set at 25 μg/m(3), 3.3% of all-cause mortality or 4,500 deaths in 2009 could be prevented. The potential gain in life expectancy at age 30 of this reduction would increase by a range between 1 and 7 months in Taiwan. This study shows that guidelines for PM(2.5), especially for long-term exposure, should be adopted in Taiwan as soon as possible to protect public health.