The Relationships between Air Pollution, Warming, and Health in Tehran Metropolis, Iran, during 2015–2019

Abstract

Introduction: Since global warming and air pollution was caused by human activities have increased dramatically in recent decades, studies have been conducted to determine how environmental parameters and air pollutants interact and, subsequently, how these pollutants affect ecosystems and human health. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between temperature and air pollutants in Tehran, Iran, in order to determine whether warming is associated with an increase in air pollutants. Materials and Methods: During 2015-2019, Iran Air Quality Monitoring Station (AQMS) and the Landsat 8 satellite were employed to retrieve data on pollutants such as PM, CO, O3, NO2, SO2, and air quality index (AQI), as well as climate-related metrics including ambient temperature and land surface temperature (LST). Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression model were used to analyze the data. Results: A positive correlation was found between temperature variables and PM10 (ρ = 0.29, p = 0.001) and O3 (ρ= 0.55, p = 0.001) pollutants. PM10 and O3 levels were evaluated by 0.46 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = (0.25, 0.67), p = 0.001) and 1.13 (95% CI = 0.89, 1.37), p = 0.001) units for each one-unit rise in temperature. Conclusion: Given the fact that temperature predominantly evidenced a significant synergistic association with PM10 and O3, it was determined that there was no substantial positive association between all pollutants and warming.