Does public concern over haze pollution matter? Evidence from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China

The impact of public eco-concern on urban eco-efficiency: A dual perspective analysis of net effect and configuration

Urban sustainable development is an important topic of concern across various sectors of society, and how to enhance urban eco-efficiency (UEE) is a critical question of our time. As an essential component of the institutional environment, the relationship between public eco-concern (PEC) and UEE requires a more nuanced exploration and validation. Based on the data collected from 279 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020, this study employs a combination of spatiotemporal analysis, spatial Durbin model (SDM), and panel qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to investigate the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of both the variables and their interrelations. The following conclusions were drawn. First, during the study period, the UEE values exhibited a fluctuating upward trend, whereas PEC showed a contrasting developmental direction. The spatial stratification of UEE was not prominent, with the overall equilibrium gradually improving; however, a polarization trend persisted, mainly characterized by a high-high clustering pattern in certain areas. Conversely, the equilibrium of PEC gradually declined, predominantly showing a high-low clustering pattern. Second, PEC significantly enhanced the UEE of the local and neighboring areas. Regionally, the western region aligned with the overall trend, whereas PEC in the eastern and central regions significantly affected the local UEE. Finally, through configurational analysis, the boundary scenarios of PEC were identified, which included two possibilities (PEC→∼CEE, ∼PEC→CEE) and five high-dimensional applicable scenarios. Results indicate important theoretical and practical insights into the utility mechanisms of PEC, contributing to the realization of urban sustainability development.

Central vertical regulation and urban environment-biased technological progress: evidence from China

Technological progress in favor of cleaner production is the key to achieving low-carbon development in China. The Ambient Air Quality Standard (AAQS) issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2012 was an essential policy for the central government to implement vertical environmental regulation. Therefore, based on the city-level panel data, this paper examines the impact of the central vertical regulation on urban environment-biased technological progress using the difference-in-differences method. The results show that central vertical regulation can significantly promote urban environment-friendly technological progress. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the driving effect of the central vertical regulation on urban environment-friendly technological progress is more obvious in the eastern regions, non-resource-based cities, large cities, and high-grade cities. Moreover, the channel analysis shows that the central vertical regulation mainly boosts the urban environmental technology progress toward cleaner production by strengthening government environmental governance, raising public environmental concern, and improving energy structure. The findings provide policy implications for evaluating the effectiveness of macro-environmental policy and promoting green sustainable development.

Long-term exposure to ambient ozone at workplace is positively and non-linearly associated with incident hypertension and blood pressure: longitudinal evidence from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei medical examination cohort

BACKGROUND

There is limited longitudinal evidence on the hypertensive effects of long-term exposure to ambient O3. We investigated the association between long-term O3 exposure at workplace and incident hypertension, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), pulse pressure (PP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) in general working adults.

METHODS

We conducted a cohort study by recruiting over 30,000 medical examination attendees through multistage stratified cluster sampling. Participants completed a standard questionnaire and comprehensive medical examination. Three-year ambient O3 concentrations at each employed participant's workplace were estimated using a two-stage machine learning model. Mixed-effects Cox proportional hazards models and linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the effect of O3 concentrations on incident hypertension and blood pressure parameters, respectively. Generalized additive mixed models were used to explore non-linear concentration-response relationships.

RESULTS

A total of 16,630 hypertension-free working participants at baseline finished the follow-up. The mean (SD) O3 exposure was 45.26 (2.70) ppb. The cumulative incidence of hypertension was 7.11 (95% CI: 6.76, 7.47) per 100 person-years. Long-term O3 exposure was independently, positively and non-linearly associated with incident hypertension (Hazard ratios (95% CI) for Q2, Q3, and Q4 were 1.77 (1.34, 2.36), 2.06 (1.42, 3.00) and 3.43 (2.46, 4.79), respectively, as compared with the first quartile (Q1)), DBP (β (95% CI) was 0.65 (0.01, 1.30) for Q2, as compared to Q1), SBP (β (95% CI) was 2.88 (2.00, 3.77), 2.49 (1.36, 3.61) and 2.61 (1.64, 3.58) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively), PP (β (95% CI) was 2.12 (1.36, 2.87), 2.03 (1.18, 2.87) and 2.14 (1.38, 2.90) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively), and MAP (β (95% CI) was 1.39 (0.76, 2.02), 1.04 (0.24, 1.84) and 1.12 (0.43, 1.82) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively). The associations were robust across sex, age, BMI, and when considering PM2.5 and NO2.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this is the first cohort study in the general population that demonstrates the non-linear hypertensive effects of long-term O3 exposure. The findings are particularly relevant for policymakers and researchers involved in ambient pollution and public health, supporting the integration of reduction of ambient O3 into public health interventions.

The impact of public environmental concern on environmental pollution: The moderating effect of government environmental regulation

As environmental problems continue to intensify, public environmental awareness and participation have become key forces in a modernized environmental governance system. Recognizing the importance of public participation in environmental governance, this study explores the influence of public pressure on environmental pollution and its implications for China's long-term environmental management efforts. Using statistical and internet search data from 284 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2020, the study finds that a 1% increase in public environmental concern leads to a 0.009% reduction in pollution. The study also highlights the strengthening effect of government environmental regulation on the impact of public environmental concern. Moreover, regional heterogeneity analysis reveals a stronger effect of public environmental concern in cities facing low economic pressure. The findings of the study provide a reference for the construction of a coordinated and sustainable environmental governance model in China as well as in developing countries.

The long-term impacts of air quality on fine-grained online emotional responses to haze pollution in 160 Chinese cities

Air pollution poses a great threat to public health and social stability by influencing multiple emotions. In particular, the air quality in developing countries is deteriorating along with rapid industrialization and urbanization, and multiple emotions may change along with regulation updates and air quality trending. Monitoring changes in public emotion is crucial for environmental governance. However, limited evidence exists for long-term effects of air quality on fine-grained emotions. Traditional surveys have the drawbacks of spatial limitations and high costs of time and money. Here, we use deep learning models to identify multiple emotions of over 10 million haze-related tweets and evaluate the effect of air quality on emotional predispositions for 160 cities from 2014 to 2019 in China. We find that sadness and joy are persistently associated with air quality, while anger and disgust are not. Surprisingly, the effects on fear vanished in the last three years. Moreover, air pollution initially had a greater impact on expressed fear in cities with higher income, poorer air quality and a greater percentage of women. Through popularity ranking and dynamic topic model, we interpretively revealed that people are no longer overly panicked and their attention is shifting toward policies and sources of haze. Our findings highlight the temporal evolution in the public's emotional response and provide significant implications for equitable public policies.

Research on Evolutionary Game of Water Environment Governance Behavior from the Perspective of Public Participation

As an informal environmental regulation, public participation plays a vital role in the multi-governance environmental system. Based on the evolutionary game theory, this paper constructs the game models of government enterprise, public enterprise and government public enterprise, and analyzes the impact of different intensity of government behavior and public participation on enterprise behavior strategies. The results show that: (1) In the two-party evolutionary game, the behavior of each stakeholder is related to its costs and benefits. Still, effective public participation allows the enterprise to choose legal discharge, even if the benefits of legal discharge are smaller than illegal discharge. (2) In the three-party evolutionary game, the steady-state conditions of government and the public are the same as those in two-party evolutionary game models. However, the decision-making behavior of enterprises also needed to consider the impact of public whistle-blowing on their reputation and image. (3) With the increase of the government's ecological protection publicity, subsidies, fines, public concern, and whistle-blowing, the evolution speed of the enterprise towards legal discharge is faster.

Residential greenness attenuated association of long-term air pollution exposure with elevated blood pressure: Findings from polluted areas in Northern China

Background

Evidence on the hypertensive effects of long-term air pollutants exposure are mixed, and the joint hypertensive effects of air pollutants are also unclear. Sparse evidence exists regarding the modifying role of residential greenness in such effects.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted in typically air-polluted areas in northern China. Particulate matter with diameter < 1 μm (PM₁), particulate matter with diameter < 2.5 μm (PM_2.5), particulate matter with diameter < 10 μm (PM₁₀), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and ozone (O₃) were predicted by space-time extremely randomized trees model. We used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to reflect residential green space. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were examined. We also calculated the pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP). Generalized additive model and quantile g-computation were, respectively, conducted to investigate individual and joint effects of air pollutants on blood pressure. Furthermore, beneficial effect of NDVI and its modification effect were explored.

Results

Long-term air pollutants exposure was associated with elevated DBP and MAP. Specifically, we found a 10-μg/m³ increase in PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and SO₂ were associated with 2.36% (95% CI: 0.97, 3.76), 1.51% (95% CI: 0.70, 2.34), and 3.54% (95% CI: 1.55, 5.56) increase in DBP; a 10-μg/m³ increase in PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and SO₂ were associated with 1.84% (95% CI: 0.74, 2.96), 1.17% (95% CI: 0.52, 1.83), and 2.43% (95% CI: 0.71, 4.18) increase in MAP. Air pollutants mixture (one quantile increase) was positively associated with increased values of DBP (8.22%, 95% CI: 5.49, 11.02) and MAP (4.15%, 95% CI: 2.05, 6.30), respectively. These identified harmful effect of air pollutants mainly occurred among these lived with low NDVI values. And participants aged ≥50 years were more susceptible to the harmful effect of PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ compared to younger adults.

Conclusions

Our study indicated the harmful effect of long-term exposure to air pollutants and these effects may be modified by living within higher green space place. These evidence suggest increasing residential greenness and air pollution control may have simultaneous effect on decreasing the risk of hypertension.

The Impact of Environmental Pollution and Economic Growth on Public Health: Evidence From China

A comprehensive understanding of the impact of economic growth and environmental pollution on public health is crucial to the sustainable development of public health. In this paper, an individual fixed effect model is used to analyze the impact of environmental pollution and economic growth on public health, based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2018. The research finds that: First, the health status of China's four regions is not only affected by economic growth and environmental pollution, but also affected by the per capita disposable income and urbanization rate. Second, there is a long-term balanced relationship between China's economic growth, environmental pollution and public health. Third, environmental pollution harms children's health and significantly increases the perinatal mortality, while economic growth helps to reduce the perinatal mortality. Fourth, environmental pollution plays a regulatory role between economic growth and public health. Fifth, there are significant regional differences in the impact of environmental pollution and economic growth on public health. Among them, the degree of harm caused by sulfur dioxide emissions on mortality in northeastern China is significantly higher than that of the eastern China, eastern China is higher than that of the western China, and western China is higher than that of the central China. Finally, in order to reduce the adverse consequences of environmental pollution on public health in the process of economic development, this study puts forward relevant policy suggestions.

Can transportation infrastructure reduce haze pollution in China?

Traffic emission is one of the main sources of haze pollution, but few studies have evaluated the dynamic impact and mechanism of transportation infrastructure on haze pollution based on a spatial perspective. This study selects the annual data of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2017 and uses a dynamic spatial Durbin model to study the dynamic impact of transportation infrastructure on haze pollution. The results show that transportation infrastructure has a significant spatial spillover effect on haze pollution, and the spatial spillover effect has regional heterogeneity. Specifically, whether long term or short term, highway traffic has a boosting effect on haze pollution, while railway traffic has an inhibitory effect on haze pollution. In addition, transportation infrastructure can affect haze pollution through three paths: expanding economic scale, promoting transformation of industrial structure, and promoting technological progress. At the regional level, the improvement of highway traffic density in eastern, central, and western regions will significantly increase haze pollution. The enhancement of railway traffic density has a significant inhibitory and boosting effect on haze pollution in central and western regions, respectively. For the eastern region, railway traffic construction can only restrain local haze pollution, but cannot exert the spatial spillover effect of railway traffic to reduce haze. The conclusions of this paper provide policy inspirations for giving full play to the haze reduction effect of transportation infrastructure and the development of green transportation.

Retrospect and Outlook of Research on Regional Haze Pollution in China: A Systematic Literature Review

Regional haze pollution, a severe atmospheric environmental problem, has profoundly harmful effects on the ecological environment, public health and the quality of economic development, and has accordingly attracted considerable attention from policymakers, researchers and the public. This article comprises a systematic literature review of the existing research on the theoretical mechanism, empirical analysis and institutional arrangement of regional haze pollution. As a result, it is found that various studies from multiple disciplines have touched upon the relevance of haze issues, including theoretical and experimental research on its formation, evolution and mechanisms from the perspective of the natural sciences, as well as empirical analysis and policy research on governance strategies, effects and mechanisms from the perspective of the social sciences, yet a systematic review and critical assessment synthesizing the above research is urgently needed. Future directions and research prospects are highlighted, showing that it is necessary to supplement and improve the theory and practice concerning the identification, measurement and assessment of haze pollution, as well as regional controlling strategies and policy implementation assessments. In short, in this review, we have aimed to help integrate the theoretical and empirical consensus in multidisciplinary fields, thereby promoting the accurate analysis, fine management and the development of precise policies in regards to regional haze pollution.