Assessing the possible impacts of temperature change on air quality and public health in Beijing, 2008-2012

Understanding the impact of temperature fluctuations on air quality and public health has gained popularity among environmental and epidemiological researchers. Potentially, increase and decrease in temperature between neighboring days have increased the environmental and health risk worldwide. Based on ordinary least-squares method, this paper aims to examine the impact of temperature fluctuations on air quality index (AQI) and respiratory health outcomes (RHOs) during 2008-2012 in Beijing. Our results show that a drop of more than 3 degrees C results in the increased impact on AQI and RHO in the heating period. At the same time, a raise of more than 3 degrees C results in the similar increased impact on AQI in the whole study period and heating period. Furthermore, for a raise of more than 3 degrees C, a larger impact on RHO is observed in the heating period compared with the whole study period. Additionally, an increase in temperature also results in the increased influence of health risk on females during the heating period. Our results suggest that the air quality and public health in Beijing are significantly influenced by decrease and increase in temperature in the heating period.