Projected air quality and health benefits from future policy interventions in, India

Air pollutants have been an urgent environmental problem in India due to adverse impacts on human health and social-economical lost. Different control strategies have been discussed to reduce air pollution, but possible outputs have not been identified. In this study, the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was applied to simulate potential benefits from future emission control with unchanged meteorology. Fourteen scenarios towards energy, residential, agriculture, industry, and open burning were simulated and the changes in ozone (O-3) and PM2.5 as well as health outcomes were evaluated. PM2.5 concentrations decreased significantly by reducing uses of solid fuels (S4), uses of diesel generating sets (S13) and applying new standards to industry facilities (S11) with maximum reductions of similar to 50 mu g/m(3), similar to 30 mu g/m(3) and similar to 15 mu g/m(3) in north India, separately. Reducing uses of solid fuels caused significant O-3 reduction by maximum > 8 ppb (S4, December), significant effects also occurred when applying new standards to current power plants (S1) (similar to 4 ppb, October.) and in S13 (similar to 3 ppb, December). Combination of all possible strategies would reduce O-3, primary PM components (PPM) and total PM2.5 in December by > 20 ppb, > 40 mu g/m(3) and > 60 mu g/m(3) in north India, while O-3 and secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA) would increase by 5 ppb and 2 mu g/m(3) in October in western and southern India. SIA also increased in part of northern regions in December by similar to 2 mu g/m(3). A total of up to 0.68 million premature mortality and 43% years of life lost (YLL) would be avoided by applying all controlling strategies.