Seasonal Variations in Human Health Impacts of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, SO₂, and NO₂ Emissions from a Solid Waste Disposal Facility at Turbhe, Navi Mumbai

A supercity Navi Mumbai has a Solid Waste Disposal Facility (SWDF) that processes and disposes 740 tons/day of waste. The emissions from the SWDF cause direct health impacts to the population residing in the vicinity of the facility. Since the severity and extent of health impacts may vary seasonally, the analysis is performed separately for monsoon and non-monsoon seasons for 3 consecutive years: 2011, 2012, and 2013. The hourly concentrations for the pollutants PM₁₀, PM_2.5, SO₂, and NO₂ have been procured from Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, having an ambient air quality monitoring station installed within the SWDF. The population residing within 1 km radius of the monitoring station is considered for the analysis. The human health impact assessment has been performed using AirQ+ model to quantify health risks in terms of mortality and morbidity caused by various short-term health effects, which include total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, hospital admissions—cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Results demonstrate the seasonal variations in terms of total Excess Number of Cases (ENCs) of all the health effects under consideration for 3 consecutive years during monsoon and non-monsoon seasons, which ranges from 21 to 23 and 152 to 156, respectively. The analysis indicates that PM₁₀ contributed most toward ENCs, while NO₂ had no health impacts. This study can be used by policy-makers to evaluate the present scenario for health impacts, which may serve as a tool to assess the existing solid waste management infrastructure and to adopt necessary augmentations for future.