A Comprehensive Assessment of Disparities in UK Air Pollutant Emissions, Exposure, and Health Burden to Inform Policy

Unequal exposure to air pollution is a systemic issue in the UK. What makes it further challenging to address are the inconsistencies in location and size of these disparities based on the air pollutant and chosen attribute: emissions, exposure or health burden. Missing is a comprehensive assessment in UK air pollution disparities from all three perspectives to inform policy. In this study, we explore how the location and size of disparities evolve from investigating disparities in air pollutant precursor emissions to that in exposure and health burdens.

Here, we use a 2-model setup to simulate meteorology and atmospheric composition over the UK at a spatial resolution of 9 km x 9 km for 2019. The meteorology is simulated using the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) model and atmospheric chemistry and transport processes using the CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality) model. The CMAQ model is updated with the most up-to-date chemistry mechanism CRACMM (Community Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Multiphase Mechanism) and is driven with air pollutant precursor emissions from the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI).

Modelled surface concentrations of health-harming fine particles (PM_2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) are evaluated against observations from the extensive national and local ground-based monitoring networks and are then applied to health risk assessment models to quantify PM_2.5-attributable premature mortality and NO₂-attributable asthma incidences. The emissions (primary PM_2.5 and NO_x), exposure and attributable health burdens are then used with demographic datasets to examine disparities in these. Work is underway to compare inequities in urban versus rural landscape in the UK. Findings from this comprehensive evaluation of inequities will be used to inform stakeholders to create targeted interventions and action plans.