Source emissions and health impacts of urban air pollution in Hyderabad, India

The source apportionment study in Hyderabad listed transportation, industries, and waste burning as critical sources of particulate matter (PM) pollution in the city. In this paper, we present sector-specific emissions for 2010-2011 for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation region, accounting for 42,600 t of PM10 (PM size < 10 mu m), 24,500 t of PM2.5 (PM size < 2.5 mu m), 11,000 t of sulfur dioxide, 127,000 t of nitrogen oxides, 431,000 t of carbon monoxide, 113,400 t of non-methane volatile organic compounds, and 25.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The inventory is spatially disaggregated at 0.01A degrees resolution on a GIS platform, for use in a chemical transport model (ATMoS). The modeled concentrations for the urban area are 105.2 A +/- 28.6 mu g/m(3) for PM10 and 72.6 A +/- 18.0 mu g/m(3) for PM2.5, when overlaid on gridded population, resulted in estimated 3,700 premature deaths and 280,000 asthma attacks for 2010-2011. The analysis shows that aggressive pollution control measures are imperative to control pollution in Hyderabad and reduce excess exposure levels on the roads and in the residential areas. The planning and implementation of measures like advancing the public transportation systems, integrating the road and metro-rail services, promotion of walking and cycling, introduction of cleaner brick production technologies, encouraging efficient technologies for the old and the new industries, and better waste management systems to control garbage burning need to take priority, as these measures are expected to result in health benefits, which surpass any of the institutional, technical, and economic costs.