Title: Mortality rates and air pollution levels under different weather conditions: an example from Western Europe

Authors: Jurgen Junk, Andreas Krein, Alfred Helbig

Addresses: Centre de Recherche Public – Gabriel Lippmann, Departement Environnement et Agro-Biotechnologies, 41, rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. ' Centre de Recherche Public – Gabriel Lippmann, Departement Environnement et Agro-Biotechnologies, 41, rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. ' Faculty of Geography/Geosciences, Department of Environmental Meteorology, University of Trier, Behringstrasse, 54286 Trier, Germany

Abstract: According to results of the World Health Organization (WHO) high PM10 concentrations caused a reduction of the average life expectancy of 10.2 months in Germany. The objectives of this study are to determine the influence of the synoptic scale flow patterns on air pollutants and to quantify effects of air pollution on mortality rates. To describe the synoptic situation two weather type classifications of the German Weather Service are used. Additionally, the ||Air Quality Health Impact Assessment Tool AirQ|| of the WHO was used to model the effects of air pollution and a model is presented for PM10 forecasts.

Keywords: PM10; air pollution; air quality index; ANNs; artificial neural networks; synoptic indices; mortality rates; ICD-10; DAQx; nitrogen oxide; Germany; weather conditions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2009.026892

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2009 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.197 - 212

Published online: 28 Jun 2009 *

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