Effect of long-term exposure to PM2.5 on years of life lost in a populated Middle Eastern city

From a public health point of view, years of life lost (YLL) is a more important index than the number of deaths to evaluate the effect of risk factors. The objective of the present study was to estimate the burden of disease including years of life lost (YLL) and expected life remaining (ELR) attributed to long-term exposure to PM 2.5 in Ahvaz, one of the most polluted cities of the world, during March 2014 through March 2017. AirQ + software was used for the estimation of YLL and ELR due to all natural causes of death. Hourly concentrations of PM 2.5 were acquired from the Department of Environment (DoE) of Ahvaz. Several steps were performed to validate the raw air quality data. Only the monitors were included that had minimum data completeness of 75%. Two age groups were selected for this study, including 0–64 and 65 65 years old decreased by 2.5, 3, and 1.6 years, respectively. These studies indicated that people in a city that the air quality is highly affected by dust storms, industrial emissions, and urban air pollution are significantly at risk. Air pollution control strategies and actions should be designed and executed to improve the quality of ambient air.