Fine particles as a public health indicator in Brazil: from monitoring to modeling

The study of fine particles (PM 2.5 ) and its relationship with health has not been much explored in Brazil. Only with Resolution CONAMA 491/2018 that PM 2.5 was nationally considered a pollutant of interest, while the World Health Organization brings guidelines for its environmental concentration since 2006. PM 2.5 monitoring in Brazil is still restricted to few Southeast municipalities. From Brazilian time series epidemiological studies that studied PM 2.5 and its relationship with health, mainly due to respiratory causes, air quality modeling was mostly employed. This paper aims to survey epidemiological studies already carried out for PM 2.5 in Brazil, discussing the use of monitored and modeled data for this purpose. The use of relative risks to estimate excess mortality and morbidity is also evidenced as a direct measure to quantify the benefits associated with air quality improvement, and an estimate for Brazilian municipalities is performed. Finally, the importance of well-designed emission control strategies is emphasized so that the health benefits of improving air quality are indeed significant.