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Abstract Background Health impact assessments (HIA) use information on exposure, baseline mortality/morbidity and exposure-response functions from epidemiological studies in order to quantify the health impacts of existing situations and/or alternative scenarios. The aim of this study was to improve HIA methods for air pollution studies in situations where exposures can be estimated using GIS with high spatial resolution and dispersion modeling approaches. Methods Tallinn was divided into 84 sections according to neighborhoods, with a total population of approx. 390 000 persons. Actual baseline rates for total mortality and hospitalization with cardiovascular and respiratory diagnosis were identified. The exposure to fine particles (PM2.5) from local emissions was defined as the modeled annual levels. The model validation and morbidity assessment were based on 2006 PM10 or PM2.5 levels at 3 monitoring stations. The exposure-response coefficients used were for total mortality 6.2% (95% CI 1.6–11%) per 10 μg/m3 increase of annual mean PM2.5 concentration and for the assessment of respiratory and cardiovascular hospitalizations 1.14% (95% CI 0.62–1.67%) and 0.73% (95% CI 0.47–0.93%) per 10 μg/m3 increase of PM10. The direct costs related to morbidity were calculated according to hospital treatment expenses in 2005 and the cost of premature deaths using the concept of Value of Life Year (VOLY). Results The annual population-weighted-modeled exposure to locally emitted PM2.5 in Tallinn was 11.6 μg/m3. Our analysis showed that it corresponds to 296 (95% CI 76528) premature deaths resulting in 3859 (95% CI 10236636) Years of Life Lost (YLL) per year. The average decrease in life-expectancy at birth per resident of Tallinn was estimated to be 0.64 (95% CI 0.17–1.10) years. While in the polluted city centre this may reach 1.17 years, in the least polluted neighborhoods it remains between 0.1 and 0.3 years. When dividing the YLL by the number of premature deaths, the decrease in life expectancy among the actual cases is around 13 years. As for the morbidity, the short-term effects of air pollution were estimated to result in an additional 71 (95% CI 43–104) respiratory and 204 (95% CI 131–260) cardiovascular hospitalizations per year. The biggest external costs are related to the long-term effects on mortality: this is on average €150 (95% CI 40–260) million annually. In comparison, the costs of short-term air-pollution driven hospitalizations are small €0.3 (95% CI 0.2–0.4) million. Conclusion Sectioning the city for analysis and using GIS systems can help to improve the accuracy of air pollution health impact estimations, especially in study areas with poor air pollution monitoring data but available dispersion models.

Bootstrap analysis is commonly used to capture the uncertainties of a bilinear receptor model such as the positive matrix factorisation (PMF) model. This approach can estimate the factor related uncertainties and partially assess the rotational ambiguity of the model. The selection of the environmentally plausible solutions though can be challenging and a systematic approach to identify and sort the factors is needed. For this, comparison of the factors between each bootstrap run and the initial PMF output, as well as with externally determined markers, is crucial. As a result, certain solutions that exhibit sub-optimal factor separation should be discarded. The retained solutions would then be used to test the robustness of the PMF output. Meanwhile, analysis of filter sample with the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer and the application of PMF and bootstrap analysis on the bulk water soluble organic aerosol mass spectra has provided insight into the source identification and their uncertainties. Here, we investigated a full yearly cycle of the sources of organic aerosol (OA) at three sites in Estonia, Tallinn (urban), Tartu (suburban) and Kohtla–Järve (KJ, industrial). We identified six OA sources and an inorganic dust factor. The primary OA types included biomass burning, dominant in winter in Tartu accounting for 73%±21% of the total OA, primary biological OA which was abundant in Tartu and Tallinn in spring (21%±8% and 11%±5%, respectively) and two other primary OA types lower in mass. A sulphur containing OA was related to road dust and tire abrasion which exhibited a rather stable yearly cycle and an oil OA was connected to the oil shale industries in KJ prevailing at this site comprising 36%±14% of the total OA in spring. The secondary OA sources were separated based on their seasonal behaviour: a winter oxygenated OA dominated in winter (36%±14% for KJ, 25%±9% for Tallinn and 13%±5% for Tartu) and was correlated with benzoic and phthalic acid implying an anthropogenic origin. A summer oxygenated OA was the main source of OA in summer at all sites (26%±5% in KJ, 41%±7% in Tallinn and 35%±7% in Tartu) and exhibited high correlations with oxidation products of α-pinene like pinic acid and 3-methyl-1, 2, 3-butanetricarboxylic acid (MBTCA) suggesting a biogenic origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil shale combustion fly ash collected to electric precipitators from pulverized firing (PF) and circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFB) processes was investigated in atmospheric chamber experiments. The aim of the work was to detect differences in the atmospheric behaviour of the fine particles from CFB and PF boilers of the Estonian Power Plant (PP), located close to Narva, Estonia. One series of experiments was performed in a dual outdoor Teflon film smog chamber (270 m³) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) under normal weather conditions (temperature, humidity, sunlight). Parallel tests were carried out in an outdoor smog chamber (108 m³) at Tuulna, Harju County, Estonia, where the experiment was made under meteorological conditions similar to those at the location of the PP. The size distribution and number concentration of particles in the chamber were monitored during the experiment. The fractional distribution results demonstrate that the CFB aerosol in the chamber air had more fine particles than the PF aerosol. Approximately 2 h after injection the fly ash particles larger than 4 µm had settled out from both samples. The initial fly ash aerosol had a trimodal fractional distribution. Both PF and CFB fly ash formed stable aerosols 1-3 µm in diameter during the 6 h experiment and are therefore prone to long-range transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The levels of priority air pollutants (NOX, CO, SO2, O3, particulate matter) were investigated at three sites in Tallinn (Estonia). The concentration of particles with diameters less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5), reaching human alveoli in lungs, was also measured. The collected samples of particulate matter were extracted with the accelerated solvent extraction method and analysed with high performance liquid chromatography. The chemical analysis indicated the occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the airborne particulate matter samples. The data received were grouped into four categories for annual, seasonal, diurnal, and day-of-the-week trends. The winter concentrations of NOX and CO in the urban area were twice as high as in the summer period. Annual and diurnal variations were studied to find out the main sources of pollution. Increasing traffic intensity and industrial activity were suggested to be associated with changes in air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbonaceous aerosols (CA), composed of black carbon (BC) and organic matter (OM), significantly impact the climate. Light absorption properties of CA, particularly of BC and brown carbon (BrC), are crucial due to their contribution to global and regional warming. We present the absorption properties of BC (b Abs,BC ) and BrC (b Abs,BrC ) inferred using Aethalometer data from 44 European sites covering different environments (traffic (TR), urban (UB), suburban (SUB), regional background (RB) and mountain (M)). Absorption coefficients showed a clear relationship with station setting decreasing as follows: TR > UB > SUB > RB > M, with exceptions. The contribution of b Abs,BrC to total absorption (b Abs ), i.e. %Abs BrC , was lower at traffic sites (11-20 %), exceeding 30 % at some SUB and RB sites. Low AAE values were observed at TR sites, due to the dominance of internal combustion emissions, and at some remote RB/M sites, likely due to the lack of proximity to BrC sources, insufficient secondary processes generating BrC or the effect of photobleaching during transport. Higher b Abs and AAE were observed in Central/Eastern Europe compared to Western/Northern Europe, due to higher coal and biomass burning emissions in the east. Seasonal analysis showed increased b Abs , b Abs,BC , b Abs,BrC in winter, with stronger %Abs BrC , leading to higher AAE. Diel cycles of b Abs,BC peaked during morning and evening rush hours, whereas b Abs,BrC , %Abs BrC , AAE, and AAE BrC peaked at night when emissions from household activities accumulated. Decade-long trends analyses demonstrated a decrease in b Abs , due to reduction of BC emissions, while b Abs,BrC and AAE increased, suggesting a shift in CA composition, with a relative increase in BrC over BC. This study provides a unique dataset to assess the BrC effects on climate and confirms that BrC can contribute significantly to UV-VIS radiation presenting highly variable absorption properties in Europe., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Griša Močnik, Asta Gregorič, Matic Ivančič and Martin Rigler were or are employed by the manufacturer of the instruments used in this study., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)