Temporal trend of PM2.5 and the associated risk to human health in the Lima Metropolitan area

• Autores: Huaman De La Cruz, Alex, Palomino Quispe, Justiniano, Zapana Diaz, Domingo, Alvarez-Tolentino, Daniel, Unchupaico Payano, Ide, Camargo Caysahuana, Andres, Aguilar Rojas, Roger, Panduro Durand, Ronald
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2024
• Institución: Universidad Tecnológica del Perú
• Repositorio: UTP-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.utp.edu.pe:20.500.12867/14634
• Enlace del recurso: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12867/14634; https://doi.org/10.18280/ijsdp.191228
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Air quality; Human health risk; Lima; https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#5.05.00

The objective of this study was to evaluate the human health risk associated with PM2.5 exposure in residents of the Metropolitan area of Lima (MAL), Peru, for a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario based on the monthly average of PM2.5 and 90th percentile of PM2.5 concentration, respectively. Hourly concentrations of PM2.5 between 2014 and 2023 corresponding to five monitoring stations were provided by the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (SENAMHI). Air quality was assessed using the air quality index (AQI). The hazard quotient to evaluate the risk to human health was calculated using the annual limit value established by the European Union (EU, 25 µg/m3 ) and World Health Organization (WHO, 10 µg/m3 ) because there is no toxicity value for PM2.5. Annual average PM2.5 concentration ranged from 19.5 µg/m3 to 35.8 µg/m3 with some years below the annual limit established by the EU, while all years exceeded the WHO limits and the Peruvian legislation (ECA (25 µg/m3 ), except 2015, 2020, and 2023). Overall, monthly PM2.5 concentrations were higher in winter versus summer seasons. AQI showed that Lima is classified from moderate to hazardous, indicating that air quality is unhealthy for sensitive population groups. In the best-case scenario and worst-case scenario based on EU, both show greater potential chronic non-carcinogenic risk in the winter months than in the summer months and were identified every year (except 2020), mainly in the winter seasons, which indicates a permanent exposure and risk to the health of the population of Lima, respectively, while WHO AQG for the bestcase scenario indicated a potential chronic non-carcinogenic health risk in most months of the year, while for the worst-case scenario, were higher in winter months than in the summer months, showing a constant behavior, indicating that there is a non-carcinogenic risk during almost the entire period. No decrease in HQ values would suggest the presence of air quality improvement measures.