Underappreciated roles of soil nitrogen oxide emissions on global acute health burden.

The recognized importance of ambient fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ), ozone (O ₃ ), and nitrogen dioxide (NO ₂ ) on human health has prompted the world to enact increasingly strict regulations on anthropogenic nitrogen oxides (NO _x ) emissions. However, the health concerns from soil NO _x , potentially driven by fertilizer input but conventionally categorized as natural sources, remain less studied. Here, we emphasize the underappreciated roles of soil NO _x emissions on health burden attributable to short-term PM _2.5 , O ₃ , and NO ₂ exposure. Globally, we quantify acute health effects using machine-learning-based daily exposure estimates and identify influences of soil NO _x emissions based on chemical transport model simulations. We find that 72.3% of the globe is affected by soil NO _x emissions, whose contributions to short-term PM _2.5 , O ₃ , and NO ₂ pollution lead to 13.9 (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 9.1-18.8), 26.0 (18.2-34.2), and 13.9 (10.3-17.5) thousand premature mortality, respectively, in 2019. With distinct variations in regions, seasons, and pollutants, soil NO _x -originated air pollution poses a global health concern, particularly for developing regions and intensively agricultural areas. In response to the intensive fertilizer use, South Asia, Southern Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Europe witness the largest soil NO _x -related health burden of up to 1.6 (95% CI: 1.1-2.1) mortality per 100k population. The overall health risk peaks in May, with O ₃ pollution typically dominating the soil NO _x -attributable health burden during warm seasons and NO ₂ or PM _2.5 during cold months. Our study highlights the necessity of dynamically adapted agricultural strategies for health-oriented multi-pollutant control, among which the improved use of synthetic fertilizers deserves priority under the ever-changing climate.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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