Author(s)

RAFAEL A. O. NUNES, MARIA C. M. ALVIM-FERRAZ, FERNANDO G. MARTINS, JUKKA-PEKKA JALKANEN, ELISA MAJAMÄKI, SOFIA I. V. SOUSA

Abstract

Air pollution is considered the most significant environmental risk to health, causing substantial economic consequences. International maritime traffic has been identified as a major air pollution source, emitting nitrogen oxides (NO_x), sulphur oxides (SO_x) and particulate matter (PM). Thus, this work aimed to study the local health impacts of PM_2.5 and NO₂ ship-related air pollution in Matosinhos municipality, where Leixões port is located (one of the major ports in Portugal), in 2014. Hourly shipping emissions were obtained using STEAM model with a resolution of 250 × 250 m for a 50 × 50 km domain. The contributions of PM_2.5 and NO₂ concentrations in Matosinhos were modelled using the AERMOD model. The annual mean background concentrations of PM_2.5 and NO₂ were acquired from the fixed monitoring stations of the QualAr network. Log-linear functions based on WHOHRAPIE relative risks (RR) for PM_2.5 and NO₂ all-cause natural mortality were used to calculate the excess of premature deaths. The costs associated with the health impacts were estimated as the product of the additional premature deaths and the value of statistical life (VSL). It was estimated that shipping emissions caused 15 additional deaths (95% CI 19–21), corresponding to 29 million € (95% CI 17–40) for the Matosinhos municipality in 2014. These results show that shipping emissions are an environmental concern that affects the Matosinhos municipality population.

Keywords

local impacts, shipping emissions, atmospheric modelling, health effects, monetary valuation