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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 5, Issue 2 (Suppl)
Occup Med Health Aff, an open access journal
ISSN: 2329-6879
Environmental Health 2017
September 7-8, 2017
September 7-8, 2017 | Paris, France
Environmental Health & Global Climate Change
2
nd
International Conference on
A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ON PREVENTABLE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES FROM
SULFUR OXIDES REDUCTION IN COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS
Cheng-Kuan Lin
a
, Ro-Ting Lin
and
David C Christiani
a
Harvard Chan School of Public Health, USA
Introduction:
The majority of ambient Sulfur Dioxides (SO
2
) are from coal-fired power plants. Previous studies have shown
the short-term effect of SO
2
on Cardio Vascular Diseases (CVD), which is the leading cause of both mortality and healthcare
cost. We estimated the relative risks and incident cases of CVD and Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) attributable to SO
2
emission
from coal-fired power plants from a global perspective.
Method:
National SO
2
reduction was defined as the average SO
2
reduction percentage weighted by generating capacities of
individual plants in a given country. We applied a poison regression to analyze the relative risk of age-standardized CVD
incidence associated with national SO
2
reduction, adjusted for behavior, economic and regional factors. CVD incident cases
attributable to suboptimal emission controls are estimated in all studied countries, assuming every country can reach 95%
emission reduction. We further applied subgroup analysis for IHD and rheumatic heart disease.
Results:
A total of 13,581 power generating units in 79 countries that used coal as the primary energy source were included
in the study. For 1% decrease in national SO
2
emission from coal-fired power plants, the adjusted age-standardized CVD
incidence rate could decrease by 0.03% for males and 0.17% for females respectively. The effects on IHD are twice as strong as
among males than females (0.28%, 95%CI=0.20%-0.36% vs 0.12%, 95%CI=0.02%-0.22%). The average population attribution
factors due to SO
2
reduction were up to 1.43% and 8.06% for males and females respectively.
Conclusion:
Reducing SO
2
emissions from coal-fired power plants has a marked association with the decrease in CVD
incidence, especially IHD. Since SO
2
emission is majorly from coal combustion, enhancing regulations on SO
2
emission control
presents a key target for national and international intervention to prevent CVD.
Biography
Cheng-Kuan Lin has his research interests on air pollution, power plants and related diseases, global burden of diseases at national and/or international levels
and quality of life, Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY). After being physician for 1 year in Taiwan, He went to Arequipa, Peru as an NGO worker and wrote a first
exhaustive travel guide in Mandarin in Taiwan. Now, he is currently doctoral candidate in Harvard Chan School of Public Health and conducts researches on energy
policies.
chl309@mail.harvard.eduCheng-Kuan Lin et al., Occup Med Health Aff 2017, 5:2(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2329-6879-C1-031