TY - JOUR
T1 - Severe atmospheric pollution in the Middle East is attributable to anthropogenic sources
AU - Osipov, Sergey
AU - Chowdhury, Sourangsu
AU - Crowley, John N.
AU - Tadic, Ivan
AU - Drewnick, Frank
AU - Borrmann, Stephan
AU - Eger, Philipp
AU - Fachinger, Friederike
AU - Fischer, Horst
AU - Predybaylo, Evgeniya
AU - Fnais, Mohammed
AU - Harder, Hartwig
AU - Pikridas, Michael
AU - Vouterakos, Panos
AU - Pozzer, Andrea
AU - Sciare, Jean
AU - Ukhov, Alexander
AU - Stenchikov, Georgiy L.
AU - Williams, Jonathan
AU - Lelieveld, Jos
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-09-26
Acknowledgements: We thank James Brooks and Eoghan Darbyshire of the University of Manchester, UK, for their help with the aerosol mass spectrometry measurements. We thank Ravan Ahmadov and Jordan Schnell of the University of Colorado, USA, for sharing and coupling the new TUV scheme with the MADE_VBS in WRF-Chem. We acknowledge the Max Planck Society for funding the AQABA campaign. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
PY - 2022/9/22
Y1 - 2022/9/22
N2 - In the Middle East, desert dust is assumed to dominate air pollution, being in permanent violation of public health guidelines. Here we present ship-borne measurements from around the Arabian Peninsula and modeling results to show that hazardous fine particulate matter is to a large extent of anthropogenic origin (>90%), and distinct from the less harmful, coarse desert dust particles. Conventionally, it was understood that desert dust dominates both the fine and coarse aerosol size fractions, which obscures the anthropogenic signal. We find that the annual excess mortality from the exposure to air pollution is 745 (514-1097) per 100,000 per year, similar to that of other leading health risk factors, like high cholesterol and tobacco smoking. Furthermore, anthropogenic pollution particles account for a major part (~53%) of the visible aerosol optical depth. Therefore, in the Middle East anthropogenic air pollution is a leading health risk and an important climatic factor.
AB - In the Middle East, desert dust is assumed to dominate air pollution, being in permanent violation of public health guidelines. Here we present ship-borne measurements from around the Arabian Peninsula and modeling results to show that hazardous fine particulate matter is to a large extent of anthropogenic origin (>90%), and distinct from the less harmful, coarse desert dust particles. Conventionally, it was understood that desert dust dominates both the fine and coarse aerosol size fractions, which obscures the anthropogenic signal. We find that the annual excess mortality from the exposure to air pollution is 745 (514-1097) per 100,000 per year, similar to that of other leading health risk factors, like high cholesterol and tobacco smoking. Furthermore, anthropogenic pollution particles account for a major part (~53%) of the visible aerosol optical depth. Therefore, in the Middle East anthropogenic air pollution is a leading health risk and an important climatic factor.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/681653
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00514-6
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-022-00514-6
DO - 10.1038/s43247-022-00514-6
M3 - Article
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 3
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
JF - Communications Earth & Environment
IS - 1
ER -
