Quantifying the Effects of Dust on Health in Kuwait & Iraq: An Epidemiological Study

This UN-Habitat-commissioned epidemiological study quantifies associations between air pollution, sand and dust events, and cardiovascular and respiratory hospital admissions in Kuwait and southern Iraq. The analysis covers 752,299 cardiopulmonary admissions: 380,862 in Kuwait and 371,437 in the Iraqi governorates of Muthana and Qadisiyah. Thi Qar was excluded from the Iraq analysis because of data limitations.

In Kuwait, daily time-series analysis found that a 10 µg/m³ increase in PM2.5 was associated with approximately 1% higher cardiopulmonary hospital admissions. In southern Iraq, monthly panel analysis found that each additional rising-dust or suspended-dust event was associated with an approximately 2% increase in admissions. The estimated association for dust storms was larger but not statistically significant.

Using these estimated exposure–response relationships, the report presents hypothetical mitigation scenarios. A 10 µg/m³ reduction in PM2.5 in Kuwait could potentially avert 403 admissions annually; a 20% reduction in suspended-dust events in Muthana and Qadisiyah could potentially avert 899 annually, assuming causal relationships. These figures are modeled projections, not measured impacts of completed interventions. The report provides evidence to inform dust mitigation, environmental monitoring, health planning and cross-border resilience