The population exposure to PM
2.5 and PM10 in ambient air for the year 2005 has been quantified (annual
and daily mean concentrations) and the health and associated economic consequences have been
calculated based on these results. The PM
10 urban background concentrations are found to be rather
low compared to the environmental standard for the annual mean (40 μg/m
3) in most of the country.
However, in some parts, mainly in southern Sweden, the concentrations were of the same magnitude as
the environmental objective (20 μg/m
3 as an annual mean) for the year 2010. The majority of people,
90%, were exposed to annual mean concentrations of PM
10 less than 20 μg/m3. Less than 1% of the
Swedish inhabitants experienced exposure levels of PM
10 above 25 μg/m3. The urban background
concentrations of PM
2.5 were in the same order of magnitude as the environmental objective (12 μg/m3
as an annual mean for the year 2010) in quite a large part of the country. About 50% of the population
was exposed to PM
2.5 annual mean concentrations less than 10 μg/m3, while less than 2% experienced
levels above 15 μg/m
3.
Using a cut off at 5 μg/m
3 of PM10 as the annual mean (roughly excluding natural PM) and source
specific ER-functions, we estimate approximately 3 400 premature deaths per year. Together with
1 300 - 1 400 new cases of chronic bronchitis, around 1 400 hospital admissions and some 4.5-5 million
RADs, the societal cost for health impacts is estimated at approximately 26 billion SEK per year. For
PM
2.5 we estimate somewhat lower numbers, approximately 3 100 premature deaths per year.
The results suggest that the health effects related to high annual mean levels of PM can be valued to
annual socio-economic costs (welfare losses) of ~26 billion Swedish crowns (SEK) during 2005.
Approximately 1.4 of these 26 billion SEK consist of productivity losses for society. Furthermore, the
amount of working and studying days lost constitutes some ~0.1% of the total amount of working and
studying days in Sweden during 2005.
2009. , p. 74