Abstract

Tropospheric ozone is an air pollutant that poses a public health problem in Europe. Climate change could increase the formation of ozone. Applying past and predicted annual total (all-cause) mortality data and modeled daily ozone concentrations, we performed a nationwide health impact assessment estimating annual ozone-related (attributable) deaths in Austria. Different approaches were compared. Estimates were based on maximal 1-h averages of ozone. Until the decade from 2045 till 2055, more people will die in Austria because of the demographic trends. Therefore, more deaths will also be attributable to ozone. Higher greenhouse gas emission scenarios (e.g. Representative Concentration Pathway RCP8.5 compared to RCP2.6) will lead to more ozone-related deaths, mostly due to the national emission of ozone precursors (a difference of 250–340 cases per year, depending on the model), but to a lesser extent because of global climate change. Increases in attributable deaths will be affected mostly by national, not global mitigation measures. National emission reduction will certainly have a strong and beneficial effect on local atmospheric chemistry, air quality, and public health.

Details

Title
Attributable deaths in Austria due to ozone under different climate scenarios
Author
Moshammer, Hanns 1 ; Mayer, Monika 2 ; Rieder, Harald 2 ; Schmidt, Christian 2 ; Bednar-Friedl, Birgit 3 ; Wallner, Peter 1 ; Hutter, Hans-Peter 1 

 Department of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University Vienna , Vienna, Austria 
 Institute of Meteorology and Climatology, Department of Water, Atmosphere, and Environment (WAU), BOKU University , Vienna, Austria 
 Department of Economics, University of Graz , Graz, Austria 
Pages
1015-1020
Publication year
2024
Publication date
Oct 2024
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISSN
11011262
e-ISSN
1464-360X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3192271242
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.