Quantifying health impacts and economic costs of PM 2.5 exposure in Mexican cities of the National Urban System

Objectives To estimate avoidable mortality, potential years of life lost and economic costs associated with particulate matter PM 2.5 exposure for 2 years (2013 and 2015) in Mexico using two scenarios of reduced concentrations (i.e., mean annual PM 2.5 concentration < 12 µg/m 3 and mean annual PM 2.5 concentration < 10 µg/m 3 ). Methods The health impact assessment method was followed. This method consists of: identification of health effects, selection of concentration–response functions, estimation of exposure, quantification of impacts quantification and economic assessment using the willingness to pay and human capital approaches. Results For 2013, we included data from 62 monitoring sites in ten cities, (113 municipalities) where 36,486,201 live. In 2015, we included 71 monitoring sites from fifteen cities (121 municipalities) and 40,479,629 inhabitants. It was observed that reduction in the annual PM 2.5 average to 10 μg/would have prevented 14,666 deaths and 150,771 potential years of life lost in 2015, with estimated costs of 64,164 and 5434 million dollars, respectively. Conclusions Reducing PM 2.5 concentration in the Mexican cities studied would reduce mortality by all causes by 8.1%, representing important public health benefits.