Impact of Air Pollutant PM2.5 on Human Health: A comparison between Developed and Developing Countries

Abstract

Recent growth in developing countries has been accompanied by increase in air pollution causing deterioration in health and well-being of the inhabitants. WHO (2019) has declared that air pollution is now a serious risk for public health worldwide. Today air pollution has become the main cause of worldwide disease burden particularly in the case of developing countries . A large number of developing countries used cheap sources of energy to meet their domestic and industrial demand consequently,they are contributing to air pollution.Though many studies have analyzed the dangerous impact of CO2 and sulphur dioxide on human health but few studies have investigated the effects of PM2.5 air pollutant on human health.Airborne particulate matter that has an aerodynamic diameter of fewer than 2.5 μm, generally recognized as PM2.5, has more harmful effects than any other pollutant on the respiratory system because it can penetrate easily and deeply into the lungs and bronchi. Vapors of other pollutants that are normal are being absorbed usually through the human tissues or go along the body fluids, but PM2.5 directly affects the lungs and pose a serious threat to human health. This study provides the important evidence of the impact of pm2.5 on human health, by using the data from 2000 to 2017 of developing and developed countries. Generalized Methods of Moments have been used for estimation of parameters, the results show that a negative link is present between life expectancy and PM2.5 emissions and a positive link is present between mortality and PM2.5. This study also confirms the fact that developing countries are more at risk than the developed countries, results show that developing country's mortality rate is high due to high exposure to PM2.5, and life expectancy decreases more with the increase in PM2.5 in developing countries as compared to developed countries