HEAT

Research team at KTL

• Jouni Tuomisto, D.Med.Sc
• Juha Pekkanen, D.Med.Sc, prof
• Matti Jantunen, PhD, prof
• Otto Hänninen, M.Sc
• Päivi Aarnio, Lic.Tech.
• Marko Tainio, M.Sc

Finnish collaboration

• Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV)
• Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki
• University of Kuopio

Funding

• Academy of Finland

Contact person

• Jouni Tuomisto

Background

Environmental health research conducted during the 1990’s has shown that urban air is a substantially more important threat to public health than was previously evaluated. World Health Organization WHO has estimated that in Europe air pollution has caused 100 000 – 400 000 excess deaths annually. Especially air pollution due to traffic emissions has significant role when estimating health effects.

Objectives

This project intends to evaluate traffic flows, emissions from mobile and stationary sources, ambient air concentrations, indoor concentrations, exposures to air pollutants and the resulting health effects. We focus on the scenarios for 2000 - 2025, as defined in the so-called Transport System Plan (TSP) of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

Description

The project is based on mathematical modelling, using already existing data to create model inputs. One of our main goals is to estimate the adverse health effects caused to the population by air pollution, to simulate the burden of disease for each of the TSP scenarios, and to inter-compare their relative public health costs and benefits. The project eventually results in practical recommendations on the most cost-effective ways in order to abate and minimise the health effects caused by air pollutants in urban areas.

Links

• Homepage

Files

<mfanonymousfilelist></mfanonymousfilelist>