Assessment of PM2.5 concentrations and exposure throughout China using ground observations

Abstract

Exposure to PM2.5 results in negative effects on human health. However, PM2.5 exposure at the national scale is poorly known for China owing to limited spatial and temporal PM2.5 concentration data. In this study, we present analyses of PM2.5 exposure throughout China using high-resolution temporal and spatial ground-level PM2.5 data from 2015. Our results indicated that the annual mean PM2.5 concentration was 52.81μg/m³, and that the highest annual mean PM2.5 concentrations primarily appeared in the North China Plain. We also found the lowest and highest monthly mean PM2.5 concentrations appeared in August and January, respectively, while the lowest and highest diurnal mean PM2.5 concentrations occurred at 16:00 and 10:00, respectively. Moreover, comparisons to data from 2013 indicated that the annual mean PM2.5 concentrations decreased by 12.31% from 2013 to 2015, which was likely due to the implementation of environmental protection laws in early 2015. Our findings provide new insights, for not only studies of PM2.5 exposure and human health, but also to inform the implementation of national and regional air pollution reduction policies.

Keywords: China; Comparison; Diurnal variation; Exposure assessment; Monthly variation; PM2.5 concentrations; Spatial variation.