Evaluation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) attributed to atmospheric O3, NO2, and SO2 using Air Q Model (2011–2012 year)

• We assessed the air pollution impact on mortality in Tabriz, Iran in 2011–2012.
• The methodology developed by the WHO was used for this purpose.
• Average annual O3, SO2 and NO2 were 40, 21, and 29 µg/m3 respectively.
• 2%, 0.7% and 0.5% of HA COPD were attributed to O3, NO2 and SO2.
• O3 and NO2 decreased respect to 2008–2009 monitoring, SO2 increased.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important disease worldwide characterized by chronically poor airflow. The economic burden of COPD on any society can be enormous if not managed.We applied the approach proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) using the AirQ2.2.3 software developed by the WHO European Center for Environment and Health on air pollutants in Tabriz (Iran) (2011–2012 year). A 1h average of concentrations of ozone (O3), daily average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) were used to assess human exposure and health effect in terms of attributable proportion of the health outcome and annual number of excess cases of Hospital Admissions for COPD (HA COPD).The results of this study showed that 2% (95% CI: 0.8–3.1%) of HA COPD were attributed to O3 concentrations over 10 μg/m3. In addition, 0.7 % (95% CI: 0.1–1.8%) and 0.5% (95% CI: 0–1%) of HA COPD were attributed to NO2 and SO2 concentrations over 10 μg/m3 respectively. In this study, we have shown that O3, NO2 and SO2 have a significant impact on COPD hospitalization. Given these results the policy decisions are needed in order to reduce the chronic pulmonary diseases caused by air pollution and furthermore better quantification studies are recommended.