Survey of Ambient Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment Tools

Abstract

Analysts quantify the health impacts of air pollution to estimate the total public health burden of ambient air pollution and the potential health benefits of reducing air pollution levels. Risk assessors and policy analysts now employ several tools to automate air pollution health impact assessments. This paper reviews 12 multinational air pollution health impact assessment tools that are currently available, categorizes the tools according to key technical and operational characteristics for different assessment contexts, and identifies information gaps that should be considered for future work. Key characteristics include spatial resolution, pollutants and health effect outcomes evaluated, and method for characterizing of population exposure, as well as tool format, accessibility, complexity, and degree of peer-review and application in policy contexts. The range of key characteristics among the tools demonstrates that there is an important trade-off between technical refinement and accessibility for a broad range of applications. Guidance should be developed to help analysts identify the tool most appropriate for the purpose of the assessment and to assist users in interpreting and communicating results. Future work should also strive to better account for multiple sources of uncertainty and to integrate ambient outdoor air pollution health impact assessment tools with those addressing household air pollution and other health factors, such as vehicle accidents and physical activity.