County-Wide Mortality Assessments Attributable to PM_2.5 Emissions from Coal Consumption in Taiwan

Over one-third of energy is generated from coal consumption in Taiwan. In order to estimate the health impact assessment attributable to PM_2.5 concentrations emitted from coal consumption in Taiwan. We applied a Gaussian trajectory transfer-coefficient model to obtain county-wide PM_2.5 exposures from coal consumption, which includes coal-fired power plants and combined heat and power plants. Next, we calculated the mortality burden attributable to PM_2.5 emitted by coal consumption using the comparative risk assessment framework developed by the Global Burden of Disease study. Based on county-level data, the average PM_2.5 emissions from coal-fired plants in Taiwan was estimated at 2.03 ± 1.29 (range: 0.32-5.64) μg/m³. With PM_2.5 increments greater than 0.1 μg/m³, there were as many as 16 counties and 66 air quality monitoring stations affected by coal-fired plants and 6 counties and 18 monitoring stations affected by combined heat and power plants. The maximum distances affected by coal-fired and combined heat and power plants were 272 km and 157 km, respectively. Our findings show that more counties were affected by coal-fired plants than by combined heat and power plants with significant increments of PM_2.5 emissions. We estimated that 359.6 (95% CI: 334.8-384.9) annual adult deaths and 124.4 (95% CI: 116.4-132.3) annual premature deaths were attributable to PM_2.5 emitted by coal-fired plants in Taiwan. Even in six counties without power plants, there were 75.8 (95% CI: 60.1-91.5) deaths and 25.8 (95%CI: 20.7-30.9) premature deaths annually attributable to PM_2.5 emitted from neighboring coal-fired plants. This study presents a precise and effective integrated approach for assessing air pollution and the health impacts of coal-fired and combined heat and power plants.