QUANTIFICATION OF THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE TO AIR POLLUTION (NO2) IN TABRIZ, IRAN

Epidemiological studies show that long-term expo-sure to NO2/NOx is associated with an increased risk of cancer. The mortality and morbidity rates due to NO2 in the Tabriz city was determined considering the relative risk and baseline incidence provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) / European Center for Environment Health, Bilthoven Division using the AirQ2.2.3 software to analyze the data. The results of this study showed that 0.85% (CI 95% 0.36 - 0.96) of acute myocardial infarction, 0.47% (CI 95% 0 - 0.94) of cardiovascular mortality and 9.28% (CI 95% 0.1 - 2.19) of hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be attributed to NO2 concentrations over 10 μg/m3. According to this model, cases of cardiovascular deaths and acute myocardial infarction caused by NO2 in Tabriz were about 0.23 and 0.10 percent of the total mortalities, respectively. In addition, about 0.9 percent of the total hospital ad-missions related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HA COPD) was caused by NO2. Therefore, due to this pollution, preventive measures and effec-tive strategies for implementing policies related to reduce air pollution should be undertaken in Tabriz city.