1
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Driscoll C, Milford JB, Henze DK, Bell MD. Atmospheric reduced nitrogen: Sources, transformations, effects, and management. JOURNAL OF THE AIR & WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (1995) 2024; 74:362-415. [PMID: 38819428 DOI: 10.1080/10962247.2024.2342765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024]
Abstract
Human activities have increased atmospheric emissions and deposition of oxidized and reduced forms of nitrogen, but emission control programs have largely focused on oxidized nitrogen. As a result, in many regions of the world emissions of oxidized nitrogen are decreasing while emissions of reduced nitrogen are increasing. Emissions of reduced nitrogen largely originate from livestock waste and fertilizer application, with contributions from transportation sources in urban areas. Observations suggest a discrepancy between trends in emissions and deposition of reduced nitrogen in the U.S., likely due to an underestimate in emissions. In the atmosphere, ammonia reacts with oxides of sulfur and nitrogen to form fine particulate matter that impairs health and visibility and affects climate forcings. Recent reductions in emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides have limited partitioning with ammonia, decreasing long-range transport. Continuing research is needed to improve understanding of how shifting emissions alter formation of secondary particulates and patterns of transport and deposition of reactive nitrogen. Satellite remote sensing has potential for monitoring atmospheric concentrations and emissions of ammonia, but there remains a need to maintain and strengthen ground-based measurements and continue development of chemical transport models. Elevated nitrogen deposition has decreased plant and soil microbial biodiversity and altered the biogeochemical function of terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal ecosystems. Further study is needed on differential effects of oxidized versus reduced nitrogen and pathways and timescales of ecosystem recovery from elevated nitrogen deposition. Decreases in deposition of reduced nitrogen could alleviate exceedances of critical loads for terrestrial and freshwater indicators in many U.S. areas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should consider using critical loads as a basis for setting standards to protect public welfare and ecosystems. The U.S. and other countries might look to European experience for approaches to control emissions of reduced nitrogen from agricultural and transportation sectors.Implications: In this Critical Review we synthesize research on effects, air emissions, environmental transformations, and management of reduced forms of nitrogen. Emissions of reduced nitrogen affect human health, the structure and function of ecosystems, and climatic forcings. While emissions of oxidized forms of nitrogen are regulated in the U.S., controls on reduced forms are largely absent. Decreases in emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides coupled with increases in ammonia are shifting the gas-particle partitioning of ammonia and decreasing long-range atmospheric transport of reduced nitrogen. Effort is needed to understand, monitor, and manage emissions of reduced nitrogen in a changing environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles Driscoll
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
| | - Jana B Milford
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Daven K Henze
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Michael D Bell
- Ecologist, National Park Service - Air Resources Division, Boulder, CO, USA
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2
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Zahed MA, Salehi S, Khoei MA, Esmaeili P, Mohajeri L. Risk assessment of Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl benzene, and Xylene (BTEX) in the atmospheric air around the world: A review. Toxicol In Vitro 2024; 98:105825. [PMID: 38615724 DOI: 10.1016/j.tiv.2024.105825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2023] [Revised: 02/23/2024] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Volatile organic compounds, such as BTEX, have been the subject of numerous debates due to their detrimental effects on the environment and human health. Human beings have had a significant role in the emergence of this situation. Even though US EPA, WHO, and other health-related organizations have set standard limits as unhazardous levels, it has been observed that within or even below these limits, constant exposure to these toxic chemicals results in negative consequences as well. According to these facts, various studies have been carried out all over the world - 160 of which are collected within this review article, so that experts and governors may come up with effective solutions to manage and control these toxic chemicals. The outcome of this study will serve the society to evaluate and handle the risks of being exposed to BTEX. In this review article, the attempt was to collect the most accessible studies relevant to risk assessment of BTEX in the atmosphere, and for the article to contain least bias, it was reviewed and re-evaluated by all authors, who are from different institutions and backgrounds, so that the insights of the article remain unbiased. There may be some limitations to consistency or precision in some points due to the original sources, however the attempt was to minimize them as much as possible.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Samira Salehi
- Department of Health, Safety and Environment, Petropars Company, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Mahtab Akbarzadeh Khoei
- Department of Fiber and Particle Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland
| | - Pedram Esmaeili
- Department of Fiber and Particle Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland
| | - Leila Mohajeri
- Department of HSE, Ostovan Kish Drilling Company (OKDC), No. 148, Dastgerdi Street (Zafar), Tehran, Iran
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3
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Choma EF, Robinson LA, Nadeau KC. Adopting electric school buses in the United States: Health and climate benefits. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2320338121. [PMID: 38768355 PMCID: PMC11145267 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2320338121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Electric school buses have been proposed as an alternative to reduce the health and climate impacts of the current U.S. school bus fleet, of which a substantial share are highly polluting old diesel vehicles. However, the climate and health benefits of electric school buses are not well known. As they are substantially more costly than diesel buses, assessing their benefits is needed to inform policy decisions. We assess the health benefits of electric school buses in the United States from reduced adult mortality and childhood asthma onset risks due to exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5). We also evaluate climate benefits from reduced greenhouse-gas emissions. We find that replacing the average diesel bus in the U.S. fleet in 2017 with an electric bus yields $84,200 in total benefits. Climate benefits amount to $40,400/bus, whereas health benefits amount to $43,800/bus due to 4.42*10-3 fewer PM2.5-attributable deaths ($40,000 of total) and 7.42*10-3 fewer PM2.5-attributable new childhood asthma cases ($3,700 of total). However, health benefits of electric buses vary substantially by driving location and model year (MY) of the diesel buses they replace. Replacing old, MY 2005 diesel buses in large cities yields $207,200/bus in health benefits and is likely cost-beneficial, although other policies that accelerate fleet turnover in these areas deserve consideration. Electric school buses driven in rural areas achieve small health benefits from reduced exposure to ambient PM2.5. Further research assessing benefits of reduced exposure to in-cabin air pollution among children riding buses would be valuable to inform policy decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernani F. Choma
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA02115
| | - Lisa A. Robinson
- Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA02115
| | - Kari C. Nadeau
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA02115
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4
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Greer F, Bin Thaneya A, Horvath A. Environmental Justice and Systems Analysis for Air Quality Planning in the Port of Oakland in California. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:8135-8148. [PMID: 38696278 PMCID: PMC11097628 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Revised: 04/12/2024] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/04/2024]
Abstract
Many frontline communities experience adverse health impacts from living in proximity to high-polluting industrial sources. Securing environmental justice requires, in part, a comprehensive set of quantitative indicators. We incorporate environmental justice and life-cycle thinking into air quality planning to assess fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and monetized damages from operating and maintaining the Port of Oakland, a major multimodal marine port located in the historically marginalized West Oakland community in the San Francisco Bay Area. The exposure domain for the assessment is the entire San Francisco Bay Area, a home to more than 7.5 million people. Of the more than 14 sources included in the emissions inventory, emissions from large container ships, or ocean-going vessels (OGVs), dominate the PM2.5 intake, and supply chain sources (material production and delivery, fuel production) represent between 3.5% and 7.5% of annual intake. Exposure damages, which model the costs from excess mortalities resulting from exposure from the study's emission sources, range from USD 100 to 270 million per annum. Variations in damages are due to the use of different concentration-response relationships, hazard ratios, and Port resurfacing area assumptions. Racial and income-based exposure disparities are stark. The Black population and people within the lowest income quintile are 2.2 and 1.9 times more disproportionately exposed, respectively, to the Port's pollution sources relative to the general population. Mitigation efforts focused on electrifying in-port trucking operations yield modest reductions (3.5%) compared to strategies that prioritize emission reductions from OGVs and commercial harbor craft operations (8.7-55%). Our recommendations emphasize that a systems-based approach is critical for identifying all relevant emission sources and mitigation strategies for improving equity in civil infrastructure systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fiona Greer
- Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Ahmad Bin Thaneya
- Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Arpad Horvath
- Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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5
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Luo L, Cohan DS, Gurung RB, Venterea RT, Ran L, Benson V, Yuan Y. Impacts assessment of nitrification inhibitors on U.S. agricultural emissions of reactive nitrogen gases. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2024; 359:121043. [PMID: 38723497 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 04/24/2024] [Accepted: 04/28/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
Fertilizer-intensive agriculture leads to emissions of reactive nitrogen (Nr), posing threats to climate via nitrous oxide (N2O) and to air quality and human health via nitric oxide (NO) and ammonia (NH3) that form ozone and particulate matter (PM) downwind. Adding nitrification inhibitors (NIs) to fertilizers can mitigate N2O and NO emissions but may stimulate NH3 emissions. Quantifying the net effects of these trade-offs requires spatially resolving changes in emissions and associated impacts. We introduce an assessment framework to quantify such trade-off effects. It deploys an agroecosystem model with enhanced capabilities to predict emissions of Nr with or without the use of NIs, and a social cost of greenhouse gas to monetize the impacts of N2O on climate. The framework also incorporates reduced-complexity air quality and health models to monetize associated impacts of NO and NH3 emissions on human health downwind via ozone and PM. Evaluation of our model against available field measurements showed that it captured the direction of emission changes but underestimated reductions in N2O and overestimated increases in NH3 emissions. The model estimated that, averaged over applicable U.S. agricultural soils, NIs could reduce N2O and NO emissions by an average of 11% and 16%, respectively, while stimulating NH3 emissions by 87%. Impacts are largest in regions with moderate soil temperatures and occur mostly within two to three months of N fertilizer and NI application. An alternative estimate of NI-induced emission changes was obtained by multiplying the baseline emissions from the agroecosystem model by the reported relative changes in Nr emissions suggested from a global meta-analysis: -44% for N2O, -24% for NO and +20% for NH3. Monetized assessments indicate that on an annual scale, NI-induced harms from increased NH3 emissions outweigh (8.5-33.8 times) the benefits of reducing NO and N2O emissions in all agricultural regions, according to model-based estimates. Even under meta-analysis-based estimates, NI-induced damages exceed benefits by a factor of 1.1-4. Our study highlights the importance of considering multiple pollutants when assessing NIs, and underscores the need to mitigate NH3 emissions. Further field studies are needed to evaluate the robustness of multi-pollutant assessments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lina Luo
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Daniel S Cohan
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
| | - Ram B Gurung
- Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - Rodney T Venterea
- Soil and Water Management Research Unit, USDA-ARS, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - Limei Ran
- Nature Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Greensboro, NC 27401, USA
| | | | - Yongping Yuan
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27711, USA
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6
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Thakrar SK, Johnson JA, Polasky S. Land-Use Decisions Have Substantial Air Quality Health Effects. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:381-390. [PMID: 38101325 PMCID: PMC10785758 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c02280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Revised: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how best to use limited land without compromising food security, health, and beneficial ecosystem functions is a critical challenge of our time. Ecosystem service assessments increasingly inform land-use decisions but seldom include the effects of land use on air quality, the largest environmental health risk. Here, we estimate and value the air quality health effects of potential land-use policies and projected trends in the United States, alongside carbon sequestration and economic returns to land, until 2051. We show that air quality health effects are of first-order importance in land-use decisions, often larger in value than carbon sequestration and economic returns combined. When air quality is properly accounted for, policies that appeared beneficial are shown to be detrimental and vice versa. Land-use-driven air quality impacts are largely from agricultural emissions and biogenic forest emissions, although incentives for reduced deforestation remain beneficial overall. Without evaluating air quality, we are unable to determine whether land-use decisions make us better or worse off.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sumil K. Thakrar
- Department
of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota; St Paul, Minnesota 55108-1038, United
States
- The
Natural Capital Project, University of Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota 55108-1038, United
States
| | - Justin A. Johnson
- Department
of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota; St Paul, Minnesota 55108-1038, United
States
- The
Natural Capital Project, University of Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota 55108-1038, United
States
| | - Stephen Polasky
- Department
of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota; St Paul, Minnesota 55108-1038, United
States
- The
Natural Capital Project, University of Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota 55108-1038, United
States
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7
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McNeil W, Tong F, Harley RA, Auffhammer M, Scown CD. Corridor-Level Impacts of Battery-Electric Heavy-Duty Trucks and the Effects of Policy in the United States. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:33-42. [PMID: 38109378 PMCID: PMC10785805 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c05139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023]
Abstract
Electrifying freight trucks will be key to alleviating air pollution burdens on disadvantaged communities and mitigating climate change. The United States plans to pursue this aim by adding vehicle charging infrastructure along specific freight corridors. This study explores the coevolution of the electricity grid and freight trucking landscape using an integrated assessment framework to identify when each interstate and drayage corridor becomes advantageous to electrify from a climate and human health standpoint. Nearly all corridors achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions if electrified now. Most can reduce health impacts from air pollution if electrified by 2040 although some corridors in the Midwest, South, and Mid-Atlantic regions remain unfavorable to electrify from a human health standpoint, absent policy support. Recent policy, namely, the Inflation Reduction Act, accelerates this timeline to 2030 for most corridors and results in net human health benefits on all corridors by 2050, suggesting that near-term investments in truck electrification, particularly drayage corridors, can meaningfully reduce climate and health burdens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wilson
H. McNeil
- Energy
Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department
of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
| | - Fan Tong
- School
of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
- Lab
for Low-carbon Intelligent Governance, Beihang
University, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic
of China
- Peking
University Ordos Research Institute of Energy, Ordos City 017000, Inner Mongolia, People’s Republic of
China
| | - Robert A. Harley
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Maximilian Auffhammer
- Energy
Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department
of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- National
Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States
| | - Corinne D. Scown
- Energy
Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Life-Cycle,
Economics and Agronomy Division, Joint BioEnergy
Institute, Emeryville, California 94608, United States
- Biosciences
Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Energy
and Biosciences Institute, University of
California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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8
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Arter CA, Buonocore JJ, Isakov V, Pandey G, Arunachalam S. Air pollution benefits from reduced on-road activity due to COVID-19 in the United States. PNAS NEXUS 2024; 3:pgae017. [PMID: 38292536 PMCID: PMC10825624 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
On-road transportation is one of the largest contributors to air pollution in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic provided the unintended experiment of reduced on-road emissions' impacts on air pollution due to lockdowns across the United States. Studies have quantified on-road transportation's impact on fine particulate matter (PM2.5)-attributable and ozone (O3)-attributable adverse health outcomes in the United States, and other studies have quantified air pollution-attributable health outcome reductions due to COVID-19-related lockdowns. We aim to quantify the PM2.5-attributable, O3-attributable, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)-attributable adverse health outcomes from traffic emissions as well as the air pollution benefits due to reduced on-road activity during the pandemic in 2020. We estimate 79,400 (95% CI 46,100-121,000) premature mortalities each year due to on-road-attributable PM2.5, O3, and NO2. We further break down the impacts by pollutant and vehicle types (passenger [PAS] vs. freight [FRT] vehicles). We estimate PAS vehicles to be responsible for 63% of total impacts and FRT vehicles 37%. Nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions from these vehicles are responsible for 78% of total impacts as it is a precursor for PM2.5 and O3. Utilizing annual vehicle miles traveled reductions in 2020, we estimate that 9,300 (5,500-14,000) deaths from air pollution were avoided in 2020 due to the state-specific reductions in on-road activity across the continental United States. By quantifying the air pollution public health benefits from lockdown-related reductions in on-road emissions, the results from this study stress the need for continued emission mitigation policies, like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) recently proposed NOX standards for heavy-duty vehicles, to mitigate on-road transportation's public health impact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Calvin A Arter
- Institute for the Environment, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Jonathan J Buonocore
- Department of Environment Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Vlad Isakov
- Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Gavendra Pandey
- Institute for the Environment, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Saravanan Arunachalam
- Institute for the Environment, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
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9
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Park S, Lim J, Kim S, Jeon M, Baek H, Park W, Park J, Kim SN, Kang NG, Park CG, Kim JW. Anti-Inflammatory Artificial Extracellular Vesicles with Notable Inhibition of Particulate Matter-Induced Skin Inflammation and Barrier Function Impairment. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2023; 15:59199-59208. [PMID: 37983083 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c14377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2023]
Abstract
Particulate matter (PM) exposure disrupts the skin barrier, causing cutaneous inflammation that may eventually contribute to the development of various skin diseases. Herein, we introduce anti-inflammatory artificial extracellular vesicles (AEVs) fabricated through cell extrusion using the biosurfactant PEGylated mannosylerythritol lipid (P-MEL), hereafter named AEVP-MEL. The P-MEL has anti-inflammatory abilities with demonstrated efficacy in inhibiting the secretion of pro-inflammatory mediators. Mechanistically, AEVP-MEL enhanced anti-inflammatory response by inhibiting the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and decreasing the release of inflammatory mediators such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and pro-inflammatory cytokines in human keratinocytes. Moreover, AEVP-MEL promoted increased expression levels of skin barrier proteins (e.g., involucrin, IVL) and water-proteins (e.g., aquaporin 3, AQP3). In vivo studies revealed that repeated PM exposure to intact skin resulted in cutaneous inflammatory responses, including increased skin thickness (hyperkeratosis) and mast cell infiltration. Importantly, our data showed that the AEVP-MEL treatment significantly restored immune homeostasis in the skin affected by PM-induced inflammation and enhanced the intrinsic skin barrier function. This study highlights the potential of the AEVP-MEL in promoting skin health against PM exposure and its promising implications for the prevention and treatment of PM-related skin disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Park
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Jaesung Lim
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, SKKU Institute for Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
- Department of Intelligent Precision Healthcare Convergence, SKKU Institute for Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Seulgi Kim
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Minha Jeon
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Hwira Baek
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Wooram Park
- Department of Integrative Biotechnology, College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Juwon Park
- Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology, and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School Medicine, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu 96813, United States
| | - Se Na Kim
- Research and Development Center, MediArk Inc.,Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea
- Department of Industrial Cosmetic Science, College of Bio-Health University System, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea
| | - Nae-Gyu Kang
- R&D Campus, LG Household & Health Care, Seoul 07795, Republic of Korea
| | - Chun Gwon Park
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, SKKU Institute for Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
- Department of Intelligent Precision Healthcare Convergence, SKKU Institute for Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Jin Woong Kim
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
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10
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Camilleri SF, Kerr GH, Anenberg SC, Horton DE. All-Cause NO 2-Attributable Mortality Burden and Associated Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the United States. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY LETTERS 2023; 10:1159-1164. [PMID: 38106529 PMCID: PMC10720462 DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a regulated pollutant that is associated with numerous health impacts. Recent advances in epidemiology indicate high confidence linking NO2 exposure with increased mortality, an association that recent studies suggest persists even at concentrations below regulatory thresholds. While large disparities in NO2 exposure among population subgroups have been reported, U.S. NO2-attributable mortality rates and their disparities remain unquantified. Here we provide the first estimate of NO2-attributable all-cause mortality across the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) at the census tract-level. We leverage fine-scale, satellite-informed, land use regression model NO2 concentrations and census tract-level baseline mortality data to characterize the associated disparities among different racial/ethnic subgroups. Across CONUS, we estimate that the NO2-attributable all-cause mortality is ∼170,850 (95% confidence interval: 43,970, 251,330) premature deaths yr-1 with large variability across census tracts and within individual cities. Additionally, we find that higher NO2 concentrations and underlying susceptibilities for predominately Black communities lead to NO2-attributable mortality rates that are ∼47% higher compared to CONUS-wide average rates. Our results highlight the substantial U.S. NO2 mortality burden, particularly in marginalized communities, and motivate adoption of more stringent standards to protect public health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara F Camilleri
- Department
of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern
University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
| | - Gaige Hunter Kerr
- Department
of Environmental and Occupational Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, United States
| | - Susan C Anenberg
- Department
of Environmental and Occupational Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, United States
| | - Daniel E Horton
- Department
of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern
University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
- Trienens
Institute for Sustainability and Energy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
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11
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Bin Thaneya A, Horvath A. Exploring Regional Reduction Pathways for Human Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) Using a Traffic Assignment Model. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:19649-19662. [PMID: 37955935 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c05594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
An exposure-based traffic assignment (TA) model is used to quantify primary and secondary fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure from on-road vehicle flow on the Chicago Metropolitan Area regional network. PM2.5 exposure due to emissions from light-duty vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, public transportation, and electricity generation for electric vehicle charging and light-rail transportation is considered. The model uses travel demand data disaggregated by time-of-day period and vehicle user class to compare the exposure impacts of two TA optimization scenarios: a baseline user equilibrium with respect to travel time (UET) and a system optimal with respect to pollutant intake (SOI). Estimated baseline PM2.5 exposure damages are $3.7B-$8.3B/year. The SOI uses exposure-based vehicle rerouting to reduce total damages by 8.2%, with high-impacted populations benefiting from 10% to 20% reductions. However, the SOI's rerouting principle leads to a 66% increase in travel time. The model is then used to quantify the mitigation potential of different exposure reduction strategies, including a bi-objective optimization formulation that minimizes travel time and PM2.5 exposure concurrently, adoption of a cleaner vehicle fleet, higher public transportation use, particle filtration, and exposure-based truck routing. Exposure reductions range between 1% and 40%, but collective adoption of all strategies would lead to reductions upward of 50%.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmad Bin Thaneya
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Arpad Horvath
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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12
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Gohlke JM, Harris MH, Roy A, Thompson TM, DePaola M, Alvarez RA, Anenberg SC, Apte JS, Demetillo MAG, Dressel IM, Kerr GH, Marshall JD, Nowlan AE, Patterson RF, Pusede SE, Southerland VA, Vogel SA. State-of-the-Science Data and Methods Need to Guide Place-Based Efforts to Reduce Air Pollution Inequity. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2023; 131:125003. [PMID: 38109120 PMCID: PMC10727036 DOI: 10.1289/ehp13063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2023] [Revised: 11/19/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recently enacted environmental justice policies in the United States at the state and federal level emphasize addressing place-based inequities, including persistent disparities in air pollution exposure and associated health impacts. Advances in air quality measurement, models, and analytic methods have demonstrated the importance of finer-scale data and analysis in accurately quantifying the extent of inequity in intraurban pollution exposure, although the necessary degree of spatial resolution remains a complex and context-dependent question. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this commentary were to a) discuss ways to maximize and evaluate the effectiveness of efforts to reduce air pollution disparities, and b) argue that environmental regulators must employ improved methods to project, measure, and track the distributional impacts of new policies at finer geographic and temporal scales. DISCUSSION The historic federal investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Biden Administration's commitment to Justice40 present an unprecedented opportunity to advance climate and energy policies that deliver real reductions in pollution-related health inequities. In our opinion, scientists, advocates, policymakers, and implementing agencies must work together to harness critical advances in air quality measurements, models, and analytic methods to ensure success. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13063.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia M. Gohlke
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
| | - Maria H. Harris
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Ananya Roy
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | | | - Mindi DePaola
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Ramón A. Alvarez
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Susan C. Anenberg
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Joshua S. Apte
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | | | - Isabella M. Dressel
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Gaige H. Kerr
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Julian D. Marshall
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Aileen E. Nowlan
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Regan F. Patterson
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Sally E. Pusede
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Veronica A. Southerland
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Sarah A. Vogel
- Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
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13
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Guan Y, Rong B, Kang L, Zhang N, Qin C. Measuring the urban-rural and spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the drivers of PM 2.5-attributed health burdens in China from 2008 to 2021 using high-resolution dataset. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 346:118940. [PMID: 37741197 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2023] [Revised: 08/15/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 09/25/2023]
Abstract
Urbanization has been considered a driver of PM2.5 pollution and the attributed health burden. This study systematically measured the spatiotemporal and urban-rural heterogeneity of PM2.5-attributed health burden drivers, including income, population, baseline mortality rate, and PM2.5 level. The results reveal the significantly positive contribution of disposable income and the periodical and urban-rural differentiation of population contribution to PM2.5-attributed health burden. The difference in driver performance due to socioeconomic development and urbanization stages might be an important determinant for different or even opposite results of previous studies. Policymaking for mitigating PM2.5-attributed health risk could incorporate the re-assessment and driver determination for PM2.5-attributed health burden into the construction and development plan from the overall urbanization perspective. The urbanization-perspective driver decomposition could be synergized with the flow analysis, equality evaluation, and policy benefit estimation to achieve further direction-determining and quantitative assessment of the urban-rural PM2.5 health risk management strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Guan
- Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin, 300191, China; Institute of Strategic Planning, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, China
| | - Bing Rong
- Center of Environmental Status and Plan Assessment, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, China
| | - Lei Kang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Nannan Zhang
- Institute of Strategic Planning, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, China.
| | - Changbo Qin
- Institute of Strategic Planning, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, China; The Center for Beautiful China, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100041, China.
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14
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Baker KR, Simon H, Henderson B, Tucker C, Cooley D, Zinsmeister E. Source-Receptor Relationships Between Precursor Emissions and O 3 and PM 2.5 Air Pollution Impacts. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:14626-14637. [PMID: 37721376 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c03317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/19/2023]
Abstract
Reduced complexity tools that provide a representation of both primarily emitted particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5), secondarily formed PM2.5, and ozone (O3) allow for a quick assessment of many iterations of pollution control scenarios. Here, a new reduced complexity tool, Pattern Constructed Air Pollution Surfaces (PCAPS), that estimates annual average PM2.5 and seasonal average maximum daily average 8 h (MDA8) O3 for any source location in the United States is described and evaluated. Typically, reduced complexity tools are not evaluated for skill in predicting change in air pollution by comparison with more sophisticated modeling systems. Here, PCAPS was compared against multiple types of emission control scenarios predicted with state-of-the-science photochemical grid models to provide confidence that the model is realistically capturing the change in air pollution due to changing emissions. PCAPS was also applied with all anthropogenic emissions sources for multiple retrospective years to predict PM2.5 chemical components for comparison against routine surface measurements. PCAPS predicted similar magnitudes and regional variations in spatial gradients of measured chemical components of PM2.5. Model performance for capturing ambient measurements was consistent with other reduced complexity tools. PCAPS also did well at capturing the magnitude and spatial features of changes predicted by photochemical transport models for multiple emissions scenarios for both O3 and PM2.5. PCAPS is a flexible tool that provides source-receptor relationships using patterns of air quality gradients from a training data set of generic modeled sources to create interpolated air pollution gradients for new locations not part of the training database. The flexibility provided for both sources and receptors makes this tool ideal for integration into larger frameworks that provide emissions changes and need estimates of air quality to inform downstream analytics, which often includes an estimate of monetized health effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirk R Baker
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, United States
| | - Heather Simon
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, United States
| | - Barron Henderson
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, United States
| | - Colby Tucker
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. 20460, United States
| | - David Cooley
- Abt Associates, Durham, North Carolina 27703, United States
| | - Emma Zinsmeister
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. 20460, United States
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15
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Goodkind AL, Thakrar SK, Polasky S, Hill JD, Tilman D. Managing nitrogen in maize production for societal gain. PNAS NEXUS 2023; 2:pgad319. [PMID: 37881340 PMCID: PMC10597588 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023]
Abstract
Highly productive agriculture is essential to feed humanity, but agricultural practices often harm human health and the environment. Using a nitrogen (N) mass-balance model to account for N inputs and losses to the environment, along with empirical based models of yield response, we estimate the potential gains to society from improvements in nitrogen management that could reduce health and environmental costs from maize grown in the US Midwest. We find that the monetized health and environmental costs to society of current maize nitrogen management practices are six times larger than the profits earned by farmers. Air emissions of ammonia from application of synthetic fertilizer and manure are the largest source of pollution costs. We show that it is possible to reduce these costs by 85% ($21.6 billion per year, 2020$) while simultaneously increasing farmer profits. These gains come from (i) managing fertilizer ammonia emissions by changing the mix of fertilizer and manure applied, (ii) improving production efficiency by reducing fertilization rates, and (iii) halting maize production on land where health and environmental costs exceed farmer profits, namely on low-productivity land and locations in which emissions are especially harmful. Reducing ammonia emissions from changing fertilizer types-in (i)-reduces health and environmental costs by 46% ($11.7 billion). Reducing fertilization rates-in (ii)-limits nitrous oxide emissions, further reducing health and environmental costs by $9.5 billion, and halting production on 16% of maize-growing land in the Midwest-in (iii)-reduces costs by an additional $0.4 billion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew L Goodkind
- Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
| | - Sumil K Thakrar
- Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
- Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - Stephen Polasky
- Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - Jason D Hill
- Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - David Tilman
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St.Paul, MN 55108, USA
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16
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Picciano P, Qiu M, Eastham SD, Yuan M, Reilly J, Selin NE. Air quality related equity implications of U.S. decarbonization policy. Nat Commun 2023; 14:5543. [PMID: 37726275 PMCID: PMC10509219 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41131-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Climate policies that target greenhouse gas emissions can improve air quality by reducing co-emitted air pollutant emissions. However, the extent to which climate policy could contribute to the targets of reducing existing pollution disparities across different populations remains largely unknown. We quantify potential air pollution exposure reductions under U.S. federal carbon policy, considering implications of resulting health benefits for exposure disparities across U.S. racial/ethnic groups. We focus on policy cases that achieve reductions of 40-60% in 2030 economy-wide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, when compared with 2005 emissions. The 50% CO2 reduction policy case reduces average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure across racial/ethnic groups, with greatest benefit for non-Hispanic Black (-0.44 μg/m3) and white populations (-0.37 μg/m3). The average exposure disparity for racial/ethnic minorities rises from 12.4% to 13.1%. Applying an optimization approach to multiple emissions reduction scenarios, we find that no alternate combination of reductions from different CO2 sources would substantially mitigate exposure disparities. Results suggest that CO2-based strategies for this range of reductions are insufficient for fully mitigating PM2.5 exposure disparities between white and racial/ethnic minority populations; addressing disparities may require larger-scale structural changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Picciano
- Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Minghao Qiu
- Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Sebastian D Eastham
- Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Mei Yuan
- Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - John Reilly
- Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Noelle E Selin
- Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
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17
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Zhang D, Wang Q, Song S, Chen S, Li M, Shen L, Zheng S, Cai B, Wang S, Zheng H. Machine learning approaches reveal highly heterogeneous air quality co-benefits of the energy transition. iScience 2023; 26:107652. [PMID: 37680462 PMCID: PMC10480617 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Revised: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Estimating health benefits of reducing fossil fuel use from improved air quality provides important rationales for carbon emissions abatement. Simulating pollution concentration is a crucial step of the estimation, but traditional approaches often rely on complicated chemical transport models that require extensive expertise and computational resources. In this study, we develop a machine learning framework that is able to provide precise and robust annual average fine particle (PM2.5) concentration estimations directly from a high-resolution fossil energy use dataset. Applications of the framework with Chinese data reveal highly heterogeneous health benefits of avoiding premature mortality by reducing fossil fuel use in different sectors and regions in China with a mean of $19/tCO2 and a standard deviation of $38/tCO2. Reducing rural and residential coal use offers the highest co-benefits with a mean of $151/tCO2. Our findings prompt careful policy designs to maximize cost-effectiveness in the transition toward a carbon-neutral energy system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Da Zhang
- Institute of Energy, Economy, and Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Qingyi Wang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Shaojie Song
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control & Tianjin Key Laboratory of Urban Transport Emission Research, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
- CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment Health Research, Tianjin 300350, China
- Harvard-China on Energy, Economy, and Environment, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Simiao Chen
- Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Mingwei Li
- Institute of Energy, Economy, and Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Lu Shen
- Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Siqi Zheng
- Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Bofeng Cai
- Center for Carbon Neutrality, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, China
| | - Shenhao Wang
- Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Haotian Zheng
- CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment Health Research, Tianjin 300350, China
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex, Beijing, China
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18
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Keyes T, Domingo R, Dynowski S, Graves R, Klein M, Leonard M, Pilgrim J, Sanchirico A, Trinkaus K. Low-cost PM 2.5 sensors can help identify driving factors of poor air quality and benefit communities. Heliyon 2023; 9:e19876. [PMID: 37809584 PMCID: PMC10559280 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2023] [Revised: 09/03/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Air quality is critical for public health. Residents rely chiefly on government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States to establish standards for the measurement of harmful contaminants including ozone, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), and fine particulate matter at or below 2.5 μm. According to the California Air Resources Board [1], "short-term PM2.5 exposure (up to 24-h duration) has been associated with premature mortality, increased hospital admissions for heart or lung causes, acute and chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks, emergency room visits, respiratory symptoms, and restricted activity days". While public agency resources may provide guidance, it is often inadequate relative to the widespread need for effective local measurement and management of air quality risks. To that end, this paper explores the use of low-cost PM2.5 sensors for measuring air quality through micro-scale (local) analytical comparisons with reference grade monitors and identification of potential causal factors of elevated sensor readings. We find that a) there is high correlation between the PM2.5 measurements of low-cost sensors and reference grade monitors, assessed through calibration models, b) low-cost sensors are more prevalent and provide more frequent measurements, and c) low-cost sensor data enables exploratory and explanatory analytics to identify potential causes of elevated PM2.5 readings. This understanding should encourage community scientists to place more low-cost sensors in their neighborhoods, which can empower communities to demand policy changes that are necessary to reduce particle pollution, and provide a basis for subsequent research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Keyes
- Evergreen Business Analytics, LLC, USA
- Sacred Heart University, USA
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19
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Gould CF, Bejarano ML, De La Cuesta B, Jack DW, Schlesinger SB, Valarezo A, Burke M. Climate and health benefits of a transition from gas to electric cooking. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2301061120. [PMID: 37582122 PMCID: PMC10450649 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2301061120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Household electrification is thought to be an important part of a carbon-neutral future and could also have additional benefits to adopting households such as improved air quality. However, the effectiveness of specific electrification policies in reducing total emissions and boosting household livelihoods remains a crucial open question in both developed and developing countries. We investigated a transition of more than 750,000 households from gas to electric cookstoves-one of the most popular residential electrification strategies-in Ecuador following a program that promoted induction stoves and assessed its impacts on electricity consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and health. We estimate that the program resulted in a 5% increase in total residential electricity consumption between 2015 and 2021. By offsetting a commensurate amount of cooking gas combustion, we find that the program likely reduced national greenhouse gas emissions, thanks in part to the country's electricity grid being 80% hydropower in later parts of the time period. Increased induction stove uptake was also associated with declines in all-cause and respiratory-related hospitalizations nationwide. These findings suggest that, when the electricity grid is largely powered by renewables, gas-to-induction cooking transitions represent a promising way of amplifying the health and climate cobenefits of net-carbon-zero policies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos F. Gould
- Department of Earth System Science, Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - M. Lorena Bejarano
- Institute for Energy and Materials Research, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Brandon De La Cuesta
- Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Darby W. Jack
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY10032
| | | | - Alfredo Valarezo
- Institute for Energy and Materials Research, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Marshall Burke
- Department of Earth System Science, Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA02138
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20
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Wang J, Zhou S, Huang T, Ling Z, Liu Y, Song S, Ren J, Zhang M, Yang Z, Wei Z, Zhao Y, Gao H, Ma J. Air pollution and associated health impact and economic loss embodied in inter-provincial electricity transfer in China. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 883:163653. [PMID: 37100137 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
As the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world, China heavily relies on coal resources for thermal power generation. Owing to the unbalanced distribution of energy resources, electricity transfer among regions in China plays a key role in promoting economic growth and ensuring energy safety. However, little is known about air pollution and the related health impacts resulting from electricity transfer. This study assessed PM2.5 pollution and related health and economic losses attributable to the inter-provincial electricity transfer in mainland China in 2016. The results show that a large amount of virtual air pollutant emissions were transferred from energy-abundant northern, western and central China to well-developed and populated eastern coastal regions. Correspondingly, the inter-provincial electricity transfer dramatically reduced the atmospheric levels of PM2.5 and related health and economic losses in eastern and southern China, while increasing those in northern, western and central China. The health benefits attributable to inter-provincial electricity transfer were mainly found in Guangdong, Liaoning, Jiangsu and Shandong, whereas the extra health loss is concentrated in Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Heilongjiang. Overall, the inter-provincial electricity transfer led to an extra increase of 3600 (95 % CI: 3200-4100) PM2.5-related deaths and 345 (95 % CI: 294-389) million USD of economic loss in China in 2016. The results could assist air pollution mitigation strategies for the thermal power sector in China by strengthening the cooperation between suppliers and consumers of electricity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaxin Wang
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Sheng Zhou
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Tao Huang
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China.
| | - Zaili Ling
- College of Agricultural and Forestry Economics & Management, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Yao Liu
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Shijie Song
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Ji Ren
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Menglin Zhang
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Zhaoli Yang
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Zijian Wei
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Yuan Zhao
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Hong Gao
- Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
| | - Jianmin Ma
- Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China; Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
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21
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Qiu M, Ratledge N, Azevedo IML, Diffenbaugh NS, Burke M. Drought impacts on the electricity system, emissions, and air quality in the western United States. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2300395120. [PMID: 37410866 PMCID: PMC10334796 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300395120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The western United States has experienced severe drought in recent decades, and climate models project increased drought risk in the future. This increased drying could have important implications for the region's interconnected, hydropower-dependent electricity systems. Using power-plant level generation and emissions data from 2001 to 2021, we quantify the impacts of drought on the operation of fossil fuel plants and the associated impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air quality, and human health. We find that under extreme drought, electricity generation from individual fossil fuel plants can increase up to 65% relative to average conditions, mainly due to the need to substitute for reduced hydropower. Over 54% of this drought-induced generation is transboundary, with drought in one electricity region leading to net imports of electricity and thus increased pollutant emissions from power plants in other regions. These drought-induced emission increases have detectable impacts on local air quality, as measured by proximate pollution monitors. We estimate that the monetized costs of excess mortality and GHG emissions from drought-induced fossil generation are 1.2 to 2.5x the reported direct economic costs from lost hydro production and increased demand. Combining climate model estimates of future drying with stylized energy-transition scenarios suggests that these drought-induced impacts are likely to remain large even under aggressive renewables expansion, suggesting that more ambitious and targeted measures are needed to mitigate the emissions and health burden from the electricity sector during drought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minghao Qiu
- Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Nathan Ratledge
- Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Inés M. L. Azevedo
- Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | | | - Marshall Burke
- Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA02138
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22
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Wang Y, Bastien L, Jin L, Harley RA. Location-Specific Control of Precursor Emissions to Mitigate Photochemical Air Pollution. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023. [PMID: 37329338 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c01934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
The effects of precursor emission controls on air quality can vary greatly depending on where emission reductions occur. We use the adjoint of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to evaluate impacts of spatially targeted NOx emission reductions on odd oxygen (Ox = O3 + NO2). The air quality responses studied here include one population-weighted regionwide and three city-level receptors in Central California. We map high-priority locations for NOx control and their changes over decadal time scales. The desirability of NOx-focused emission control programs has increased between 2000 and 2022. We find for present-day conditions that reducing NOx emissions by 28% from targeted high-priority locations can achieve 60% of the air quality benefits of uniform NOx reductions at all locations. High-priority source locations are found to differ for individual city-level versus regionwide receptors of interest. While high-impact emission hotspots for improving city-level metrics are found within the city itself or closely adjacent, the spatial pattern of emission hotspots for improving regionwide air quality is more complex and requires comprehensive consideration of upwind sources. Results of this study can help to inform strategic decision-making at local and regional levels about where to prioritize emission control efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuhan Wang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Lucas Bastien
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Ling Jin
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Robert A Harley
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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23
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Valencia A, Serre M, Arunachalam S. A hyperlocal hybrid data fusion near-road PM2.5 and NO2 annual risk and environmental justice assessment across the United States. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0286406. [PMID: 37262039 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/14/2023] [Indexed: 06/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Exposure to traffic-related air pollutants (TRAPs) has been associated with numerous adverse health effects. TRAP concentrations are highest meters away from major roads, and disproportionately affect minority (i.e., non-white) populations often considered the most vulnerable to TRAP exposure. To demonstrate an improved assessment of on-road emissions and to quantify exposure inequity in this population, we develop and apply a hybrid data fusion approach that utilizes the combined strength of air quality observations and regional/local scale models to estimate air pollution exposures at census block resolution for the entire U.S. We use the regional photochemical grid model CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality) to predict the spatiotemporal impacts at local/regional scales, and the local scale dispersion model, R-LINE (Research LINE source) to estimate concentrations that capture the sharp TRAP gradients from roads. We further apply the Regionalized Air quality Model Performance (RAMP) Hybrid data fusion technique to consider the model's nonhomogeneous, nonlinear performance to not only improve exposure estimates, but also achieve significant model performance improvement. With a R2 of 0.51 for PM2.5 and 0.81 for NO2, the RAMP hybrid method improved R2 by ~0.2 for both pollutants (an increase of up to ~70% for PM2.5 and ~31% NO2). Using the RAMP Hybrid method, we estimate 264,516 [95% confidence interval [CI], 223,506-307,577] premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 from all sources, a ~1% overall decrease in CMAQ-estimated premature mortality compared to RAMP Hybrid, despite increases and decreases in some locations. For NO2, RAMP Hybrid estimates 138,550 [69,275-207,826] premature deaths, a ~19% increase (22,576 [11,288 - 33,864]) compared to CMAQ. Finally, using our RAMP hybrid method to estimate exposure inequity across the U.S., we estimate that Minorities within 100 m from major roads are exposed to up to 15% more PM2.5 and up to 35% more NO2 than their White counterparts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Valencia
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
- Institute for the Environment, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Marc Serre
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Saravanan Arunachalam
- Institute for the Environment, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
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24
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Bin Thaneya A, Horvath A. Exploring Regional Fine Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) Exposure Reduction Pathways Using an Optimal Power Flow Model: The Case of the Illinois Power Grid. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:7989-8001. [PMID: 37191255 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c08698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
This work develops an exposure-based optimal power flow model (OPF) that accounts for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure from electricity generation unit (EGU) emissions. Advancing health-based dispatch models to an OPF with transmission constraints and reactive power flow is an essential development given its utility for short- and long-term planning by system operators. The model enables the assessment of the exposure mitigation potential and the feasibility of intervention strategies while still prioritizing system costs and network stability. A representation of the Illinois power grid is developed to demonstrate how the model can inform decision making. Three scenarios minimizing dispatch costs and/or exposure damages are simulated. Other interventions assessed include adopting best-available EGU emission control technologies, having higher renewable generation, and relocating high-polluting EGUs. Neglecting transmission constraints fails to account for 4% of exposure damages ($60 M/y) and dispatch costs ($240 M/y). Accounting for exposure in the OPF reduces damages by 70%, a reduction on the order of that achieved by high renewable integration. About 80% of all exposure is attributed to EGUs fulfilling only 25% of electricity demand. Siting these EGUs in low-exposure zones avoids 43% of all exposure. Operation and cost advantages inherent to each strategy beyond exposure reduction suggest their collective adoption for maximum benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmad Bin Thaneya
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Arpad Horvath
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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25
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Zhang D, Martin RV, Bindle L, Li C, Eastham SD, van Donkelaar A, Gallardo L. Advances in Simulating the Global Spatial Heterogeneity of Air Quality and Source Sector Contributions: Insights into the Global South. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:6955-6964. [PMID: 37079489 PMCID: PMC10158787 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c07253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2022] [Revised: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
High-resolution simulations are essential to resolve fine-scale air pollution patterns due to localized emissions, nonlinear chemical feedbacks, and complex meteorology. However, high-resolution global simulations of air quality remain rare, especially of the Global South. Here, we exploit recent developments to the GEOS-Chem model in its high-performance implementation to conduct 1-year simulations in 2015 at cubed-sphere C360 (∼25 km) and C48 (∼200 km) resolutions. We investigate the resolution dependence of population exposure and sectoral contributions to surface fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), focusing on understudied regions. Our results indicate pronounced spatial heterogeneity at high resolution (C360) with large global population-weighted normalized root-mean-square difference (PW-NRMSD) across resolutions for primary (62-126%) and secondary (26-35%) PM2.5 species. Developing regions are more sensitive to spatial resolution resulting from sparse pollution hotspots, with PW-NRMSD for PM2.5 in the Global South (33%), 1.3 times higher than globally. The PW-NRMSD for PM2.5 for discrete southern cities (49%) is substantially higher than for more clustered northern cities (28%). We find that the relative order of sectoral contributions to population exposure depends on simulation resolution, with implications for location-specific air pollution control strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dandan Zhang
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Randall V. Martin
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Liam Bindle
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Chi Li
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Sebastian D. Eastham
- Laboratory
for Aviation and the Environment, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Joint
Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Aaron van Donkelaar
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Laura Gallardo
- Center
for Climate and Resilience Research, Santiago 8370448, Chile
- Department
of Geophysics, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics, University of Chile, Santiago 8370448, Chile
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26
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Gentry BM, Robinson AL, Adams PJ. EASIUR-HR: A Model To Evaluate Exposure Inequality Caused by Ground-Level Sources of Primary Fine Particulate Matter. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:3817-3824. [PMID: 36802589 PMCID: PMC9996819 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c06317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Revised: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
People of color disproportionately bear the health impacts of air pollution, making air quality a critical environmental justice issue. However, quantitative analysis of the disproportionate impacts of emissions is rarely done due to a lack of suitable models. Our work develops a high-resolution reduced-complexity model (EASIUR-HR) to evaluate the disproportionate impacts of ground-level primary PM2.5 emissions. Our approach combines a Gaussian plume model for near-source impacts of primary PM2.5 with a previously developed reduced-complexity model, EASIUR, to predict primary PM2.5 concentrations at a spatial resolution of 300 m across the contiguous United States. We find that low-resolution models underpredict important local spatial variation of air pollution exposure to primary PM2.5 emissions, potentially underestimating the contribution of these emissions to national inequality in PM2.5 exposure by more than a factor of 2. We apply EASIUR-HR to analyze the impacts of vehicle electrification on exposure disparities. While such a policy has small aggregate air quality impacts nationally, it reduces exposure disparity for race/ethnic minorities. Our high-resolution RCM for primary PM2.5 emissions (EASIUR-HR) is a new, publicly available tool to assess inequality in air pollution exposure across the United States.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian M. Gentry
- Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
- Department
of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie
Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
| | - Allen L. Robinson
- Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
- Carnegie
Mellon University Africa, BP 6150 Kigali, Rwanda
| | - Peter J. Adams
- Department
of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie
Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
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27
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Henneman LR, Rasel MM, Choirat C, Anenberg SC, Zigler C. Inequitable Exposures to U.S. Coal Power Plant-Related PM2.5: 22 Years and Counting. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2023; 131:37005. [PMID: 36884005 PMCID: PMC9994529 DOI: 10.1289/ehp11605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Emissions from coal power plants have decreased over recent decades due to regulations and economics affecting costs of providing electricity generated by coal vis-à-vis its alternatives. These changes have improved regional air quality, but questions remain about whether benefits have accrued equitably across population groups. OBJECTIVES We aimed to quantify nationwide long-term changes in exposure to particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5μm (PM2.5) associated with coal power plant SO2 emissions. We linked exposure reductions with three specific actions taken at individual power plants: scrubber installations, reduced operations, and retirements. We assessed how emissions changes in different locations have influenced exposure inequities, extending previous source-specific environmental justice analyses by accounting for location-specific differences in racial/ethnic population distributions. METHODS We developed a data set of annual PM2.5 source impacts ("coal PM2.5") associated with SO2 emissions at each of 1,237 U.S. coal-fired power plants across 1999-2020. We linked population-weighted exposure with information about each coal unit's operational and emissions-control status. We calculate changes in both relative and absolute exposure differences across demographic groups. RESULTS Nationwide population-weighted coal PM2.5 declined from 1.96μg/m3 in 1999 to 0.06 μg/m3 in 2020. Between 2007 and 2010, most of the exposure reduction is attributable to SO2 scrubber installations, and after 2010 most of the decrease is attributable to retirements. Black populations in the South and North Central United States and Native American populations in the western United States were inequitably exposed early in the study period. Although inequities decreased with falling emissions, facilities in states across the North Central United States continue to inequitably expose Black populations, and Native populations are inequitably exposed to emissions from facilities in the West. DISCUSSION We show that air quality controls, operational adjustments, and retirements since 1999 led to reduced exposure to coal power plant related PM2.5. Reduced exposure improved equity overall, but some populations continue to be inequitably exposed to PM2.5 associated with facilities in the North Central and western United States. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11605.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas R.F. Henneman
- Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering; George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
| | - Munshi Md Rasel
- Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering; George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
| | - Christine Choirat
- Swiss Data Science Center, ETH Zürich and EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Susan C. Anenberg
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Corwin Zigler
- Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, University of Texas, Austin, USA
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28
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Zeng W, Chen X, Dong H, Liu Y. Doing more with less: How to design a good subgroup governance model for the air pollution transport network in "2+26" cities of China? JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 327:116909. [PMID: 36463842 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 08/08/2022] [Accepted: 11/26/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Air pollution shares the attributes of significant spatial spillover effects and environmental public goods, leading to the territorial governance model that easily falls into a state of failure. Despite a growing number of studies on the local spatial spillover effect of air pollution, scant evidence currently exists on its global spatial association effect and a good subgroup governance model. Based on a panel data set of the daily prefecture-level city data on air quality measured by the air quality index (AQI) in "2 + 26" cities of China in 2015 and 2018, this study first builds an air pollution transport network (APTN), i.e., the cities as the nodes and the association relationships between the nodes as the edges. Furthermore, this paper reveals the spatial association effect and the temporal lagged attribute of the APTN using the Social network analysis (SNA) and the Generalized impulse response function (GIRF). The results are summarized as follows. (1) Every city has significant spatial association effects of air pollution with at least another city in the APTN, and northern APTN affects most to the air pollution of other cities, while southern APTN is obviously always affected by air pollution in other cities. (2) Transport strength peaks on the second day of an air pollution transport process, and the transport process lasts for 7-12 days. (3) The APTN is divided into four subgroups: Sycophants, Primary, Bidirectional, and Brokers, with Baoding, Zhengzhou, Heze, and Hengshui as the central cities of each group, respectively. Overall, our study provides a networked, modular, and early-warning governance model for policymakers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenxia Zeng
- School of Economics & Management, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China
| | - Xi Chen
- School of Economics & Management, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
| | - Huizhong Dong
- School of Management, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255012, China
| | - Yanping Liu
- School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, 510320, China
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29
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Thind MPS, Tessum CW, Marshall JD. Environmental Health, Racial/Ethnic Health Disparity, and Climate Impacts of Inter-Regional Freight Transport in the United States. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:884-895. [PMID: 36580637 PMCID: PMC9851153 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c03646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
We quantify and compare three environmental impacts from inter-regional freight transportation in the contiguous United States: total mortality attributable to PM2.5 air pollution, racial-ethnic disparities in PM2.5-attributable mortality, and CO2 emissions. We compare all major freight modes (truck, rail, barge, aircraft) and routes (∼30,000 routes). Our study is the first to comprehensively compare each route separately and the first to explore racial-ethnic exposure disparities by route and mode, nationally. Impacts (health, health disparity, climate) per tonne of freight are the largest for aircraft. Among nonaircraft modes, per tonne, rail has the largest health and health-disparity impacts and the lowest climate impacts, whereas truck transport has the lowest health impacts and greatest climate impacts─an important reminder that health and climate impacts are often but not always aligned. For aircraft and truck, average monetized damages per tonne are larger for climate impacts than those for PM2.5 air pollution; for rail and barge, the reverse holds. We find that average exposures from inter-regional truck and rail are the highest for White non-Hispanic people, those from barge are the highest for Black people, and those from aircraft are the highest for people who are mixed/other race. Level of exposure and disparity among racial-ethnic groups vary in urban versus rural areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maninder P. S. Thind
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
| | - Christopher W. Tessum
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Julian D. Marshall
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
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30
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Alvarez CH. Structural Racism as an Environmental Justice Issue: A Multilevel Analysis of the State Racism Index and Environmental Health Risk from Air Toxics. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2023; 10:244-258. [PMID: 34993918 PMCID: PMC9810559 DOI: 10.1007/s40615-021-01215-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 12/16/2021] [Accepted: 12/17/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Communities of color and poor neighborhoods are disproportionately exposed to more air pollution-a pattern known as environmental injustices. Environmental injustices increase susceptibility to negative health outcomes among residents in affected communities. The structural mechanisms distributing environmental injustices in the USA are understudied. Bridging the literatures on the social determinants of health and environmental justice highlights the importance of the environmental conditions for health inequalities and sheds light on the institutional mechanisms driving environmental health inequalities. Employing a critical quantitative methods approach, we use data from an innovative state racism index to argue that systematic racialized inequalities in areas from housing to employment increase outdoor airborne environmental health risks in neighborhoods. Results of a multilevel analysis in over 65,000 census tracts demonstrate that tracts in states with higher levels of state-level Black-white gaps report greater environmental health risk exposure to outdoor air pollution. The state racism index explains four-to-ten percent of county- and state-level variation in carcinogenic risk and noncarcinogenic respiratory system risks from outdoor air toxics. The findings suggest that the disproportional exposure across communities is tied to systematic inequalities in environmental regulation and other structural elements such as housing and incarceration. Structural racism is an environmental justice issue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camila H. Alvarez
- grid.266096.d0000 0001 0049 1282Department of Sociology, University of California–Merced, 5200 N. Lake Rd., CA 95343 Merced, USA
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31
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Pozzer A, Anenberg SC, Dey S, Haines A, Lelieveld J, Chowdhury S. Mortality Attributable to Ambient Air Pollution: A Review of Global Estimates. GEOHEALTH 2023; 7:e2022GH000711. [PMID: 36636746 PMCID: PMC9828848 DOI: 10.1029/2022gh000711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Since the publication of the first epidemiological study to establish the connection between long-term exposure to atmospheric pollution and effects on human health, major efforts have been dedicated to estimate the attributable mortality burden, especially in the context of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD). In this work, we review the estimates of excess mortality attributable to outdoor air pollution at the global scale, by comparing studies available in the literature. We find large differences between the estimates, which are related to the exposure response functions as well as the number of health outcomes included in the calculations, aspects where further improvements are necessary. Furthermore, we show that despite the considerable advancements in our understanding of health impacts of air pollution and the consequent improvement in the accuracy of the global estimates, their precision has not increased in the last decades. We offer recommendations for future measurements and research directions, which will help to improve our understanding and quantification of air pollution-health relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- A. Pozzer
- Max Planck Institute for ChemistryMainzGermany
- The Cyprus InstituteNicosiaCyprus
| | - S. C. Anenberg
- Milken Institute School of Public HealthWashington UniversityWashingtonDCUSA
| | - S. Dey
- Indian Institute of Technology DelhiDelhiIndia
| | - A. Haines
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicineLondonUK
| | - J. Lelieveld
- Max Planck Institute for ChemistryMainzGermany
- The Cyprus InstituteNicosiaCyprus
| | - S. Chowdhury
- Max Planck Institute for ChemistryMainzGermany
- CICERO Center for International Climate ResearchOsloNorway
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32
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Chen ZL, Song W, Hu CC, Liu XJ, Chen GY, Walters WW, Michalski G, Liu CQ, Fowler D, Liu XY. Significant contributions of combustion-related sources to ammonia emissions. Nat Commun 2022; 13:7710. [PMID: 36513669 PMCID: PMC9747788 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35381-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2022] [Accepted: 11/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4+) can substantially influence air quality, ecosystems, and climate. NH3 volatilization from fertilizers and wastes (v-NH3) has long been assumed to be the primary NH3 source, but the contribution of combustion-related NH3 (c-NH3, mainly fossil fuels and biomass burning) remains unconstrained. Here, we collated nitrogen isotopes of atmospheric NH3 and NH4+ and established a robust method to differentiate v-NH3 and c-NH3. We found that the relative contribution of the c-NH3 in the total NH3 emissions reached up to 40 ± 21% (6.6 ± 3.4 Tg N yr-1), 49 ± 16% (2.8 ± 0.9 Tg N yr-1), and 44 ± 19% (2.8 ± 1.3 Tg N yr-1) in East Asia, North America, and Europe, respectively, though its fractions and amounts in these regions generally decreased over the past decades. Given its importance, c-NH3 emission should be considered in making emission inventories, dispersion modeling, mitigation strategies, budgeting deposition fluxes, and evaluating the ecological effects of atmospheric NH3 loading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi-Li Chen
- grid.33763.320000 0004 1761 2484School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China
| | - Wei Song
- grid.33763.320000 0004 1761 2484School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China
| | - Chao-Chen Hu
- grid.33763.320000 0004 1761 2484School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China
| | - Xue-Jun Liu
- grid.22935.3f0000 0004 0530 8290College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China
| | - Guan-Yi Chen
- grid.33763.320000 0004 1761 2484School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China
| | - Wendell W. Walters
- grid.40263.330000 0004 1936 9094Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University, 85 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02912 USA
| | - Greg Michalski
- grid.169077.e0000 0004 1937 2197Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA
| | - Cong-Qiang Liu
- grid.33763.320000 0004 1761 2484School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China
| | - David Fowler
- grid.494924.60000 0001 1089 2266Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB United Kingdom
| | - Xue-Yan Liu
- grid.33763.320000 0004 1761 2484School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China
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33
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Bhat TH, Farzaneh H. Quantifying the multiple environmental, health, and economic benefits from the electrification of the Delhi public transport bus fleet, estimating a district-wise near roadway avoided PM 2.5 exposure. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2022; 321:116027. [PMID: 36104892 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Revised: 06/02/2022] [Accepted: 08/13/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates the co-benefits from the utilization of the battery-electric bus (BEB) fleet in the Delhi public transportation system as a part of the Delhi electric vehicles policy 2020. To this aim, an integrated quantitative assessment framework is developed to estimate the expected environmental, health, and economic co-benefits from replacing the currently existing public bus fleet with the new BEBs in Delhi. First, the model estimates the avoided emissions from deploying the BEB fleet, using a detailed battery energy simulation model, considering the impact of the battery capacity loss on the annual operational time (hours of service) of the BEB. The annual operational time of the BEB is greatly affected by its battery degradation, which results in time lost due to charging the battery. This indicates that the annual passenger-kilometer (PKM) delivered by the BEB is less than the regular bus, under the same traveling condition. Second, considering fine particles (PM2.5) as the most health-harming pollutant, the model calculates the near roadway avoided PM2.5 exposure in the selected traffic zones of 11 major districts of Delhi, using a Gaussian dispersion model. Third, the near roadway avoided PM2.5 exposure is further used in a health impact assessment model, which considers concentration-response functions for several diseases to evaluate the public health benefits from introducing the BEB fleet in Delhi. The research findings indicate that, the utilization of the new BEB fleet leads to a 74.67% reduction in the total pollutant emissions from the existing bus fleet in Delhi. The results of the integrated co-benefits assessment reveal a significant reduction in PM2.5 emissions (44 t/y), leading to avoidance of mortality (1370 cases) and respiratory diseases related hospital admissions (2808 cases), respectively, and an annual savings of about USD 383 million from the avoided mortality and morbidity cases in Delhi.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tavoos Hassan Bhat
- Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 816-8580, Japan.
| | - Hooman Farzaneh
- Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 816-8580, Japan; Transdisciplinary Research and Education Center for Green Technologies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
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Wang Y, Apte JS, Hill JD, Ivey CE, Patterson RF, Robinson AL, Tessum CW, Marshall JD. Location-specific strategies for eliminating US national racial-ethnic [Formula: see text] exposure inequality. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2205548119. [PMID: 36279443 PMCID: PMC9636929 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2205548119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 07/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Air pollution levels in the United States have decreased dramatically over the past decades, yet national racial-ethnic exposure disparities persist. For ambient fine particulate matter ([Formula: see text]), we investigate three emission-reduction approaches and compare their optimal ability to address two goals: 1) reduce the overall population average exposure ("overall average") and 2) reduce the difference in the average exposure for the most exposed racial-ethnic group versus for the overall population ("national inequalities"). We show that national inequalities in exposure can be eliminated with minor emission reductions (optimal: ~1% of total emissions) if they target specific locations. In contrast, achieving that outcome using existing regulatory strategies would require eliminating essentially all emissions (if targeting specific economic sectors) or is not possible (if requiring urban regions to meet concentration standards). Lastly, we do not find a trade-off between the two goals (i.e., reducing overall average and reducing national inequalities); rather, the approach that does the best for reducing national inequalities (i.e., location-specific strategies) also does as well as or better than the other two approaches (i.e., sector-specific and meeting concentration standards) for reducing overall averages. Overall, our findings suggest that incorporating location-specific emissions reductions into the US air quality regulatory framework 1) is crucial for eliminating long-standing national average exposure disparities by race-ethnicity and 2) can benefit overall average exposures as much as or more than the sector-specific and concentration-standards approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuzhou Wang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
| | - Joshua S. Apte
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Jason D. Hill
- Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108
| | - Cesunica E. Ivey
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Regan F. Patterson
- Center for Policy Analysis and Research, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Washington, DC 20036
| | - Allen L. Robinson
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
| | - Christopher W. Tessum
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801
| | - Julian D. Marshall
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
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Collins TW, Grineski SE, Shaker Y, Mullen CJ. Communities of color are disproportionately exposed to long-term and short-term PM 2.5 in metropolitan America. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2022; 214:114038. [PMID: 35961542 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Revised: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
We conducted a novel investigation of neighborhood-level racial/ethnic exposure disparities employing measures aligned with long-term and short-term PM2.5 air pollution benchmarks across metropolitan contexts of the contiguous United States, 2012-2016. We used multivariable generalized estimating equations (GEE) to quantify PM2.5 exposure disparities based on the census tract composition of people of color (POC) and POC groups (Hispanic/Latina/x/o, Black, Asian). We examined eight census tract-level measures of longer-to-shorter term exposures derived from data on modeled daily ambient PM2.5 concentrations. We found associations between increased POC composition and greater exposure to all PM2.5 measures, with associations strengthening across measures of longer-to-shorter term exposures. In a GEE with a negative binomial distribution, a standard deviation increase in POC composition predicted a 0.6% increase (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 1.006, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.005-1.008) in the number of days PM2.5 concentrations were ≥5 μg/m3 (longest-term benchmark). In a GEE with an inverse Gaussian distribution, a standard deviation increase in POC composition predicted a 0.110 μg/m3 (1.0%) increase (B: 0.110, 95% CI: 0.076-0.143) in mean PM2.5 concentration. In GEEs with a negative binomial distribution, the effect of a standard deviation increase in POC composition on exposure strengthened to 2.6% (IRR:1.026, 95% CI:1.017-1.035), 3.4% (IRR:1.034, 95% CI:1.022-1.047), 4.2% (IRR:1.042, 95% CI:1.025-1.058), 16.2% (IRR:1.162, 95% CI:1.117-1.210), 22.7% (IRR:1.227, 95% CI:1.137-1.325) and 28.3% (IRR:1.283, 95% CI:1.144-1.439) with respect to the number of days PM2.5 concentrations were ≥10, 12, 15, 25, 35 and 55.5 μg/m3. POC group models indicated exposure disparities based on greater Hispanic/Latina/x/o, Asian, and Black composition. Evidence for stronger POC associations with shorter-term (higher concentration) PM2.5 exceedances suggests that reducing PM2.5 would attenuate racial/ethnic exposure disparities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy W Collins
- Department of Geography, University of Utah; 260 Central Campus Dr., Rm. 4625, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA; Center for Natural & Technological Hazards, University of Utah; 260 Central Campus Dr., Rm. 4625, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA.
| | - Sara E Grineski
- Center for Natural & Technological Hazards, University of Utah; 260 Central Campus Dr., Rm. 4625, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA; Department of Sociology, University of Utah; 380 S 1530 E, Rm. 301, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Yasamin Shaker
- Center for Natural & Technological Hazards, University of Utah; 260 Central Campus Dr., Rm. 4625, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA; Department of Sociology, University of Utah; 380 S 1530 E, Rm. 301, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Casey J Mullen
- Center for Natural & Technological Hazards, University of Utah; 260 Central Campus Dr., Rm. 4625, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA; Department of Sociology, University of Utah; 380 S 1530 E, Rm. 301, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
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Tessum MW, Anenberg SC, Chafe ZA, Henze DK, Kleiman G, Kheirbek I, Marshall JD, Tessum CW. Sources of ambient PM 2.5 exposure in 96 global cities. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT (OXFORD, ENGLAND : 1994) 2022; 286:119234. [PMID: 36193038 PMCID: PMC9297293 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2022] [Revised: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
To improve air quality, knowledge of the sources and locations of air pollutant emissions is critical. However, for many global cities, no previous estimates exist of how much exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the largest environmental cause of mortality, is caused by emissions within the city vs. outside its boundaries. We use the Intervention Model for Air Pollution (InMAP) global-through-urban reduced complexity air quality model with a high-resolution, global inventory of pollutant emissions to quantify the contribution of emissions by source type and location for 96 global cities. Among these cities, we find that the fraction of PM2.5 exposure caused by within-city emissions varies widely (μ = 37%; σ = 22%) and is not well-explained by surrounding population density. The list of most-important sources also varies by city. Compared to a more mechanistically detailed model, InMAP predicts urban measured concentrations with lower bias and error but also lower correlation. Predictive accuracy in urban areas is not particularly high with either model, suggesting an opportunity for improving global urban air emission inventories. We expect the results herein can be useful as a screening tool for policy options and, in the absence of available resources for further analysis, to inform policy action to improve public health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mei W. Tessum
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
| | - Susan C. Anenberg
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States
| | - Zoe A. Chafe
- C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Inc., New York, NY, United States
| | - Daven K. Henze
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States
| | | | - Iyad Kheirbek
- C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Inc., New York, NY, United States
| | - Julian D. Marshall
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Christopher W. Tessum
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
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Luo L, Ran L, Rasool QZ, Cohan DS. Integrated Modeling of U.S. Agricultural Soil Emissions of Reactive Nitrogen and Associated Impacts on Air Pollution, Health, and Climate. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2022; 56:9265-9276. [PMID: 35712939 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c08660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Agricultural soils are leading sources of reactive nitrogen (Nr) species including nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), and nitrous oxide (N2O). The propensity of NOx and NH3 to generate ozone and fine particulate matter and associated impacts on health are highly variable, whereas the climate impacts of long-lived N2O are independent of emission timing and location. However, these impacts have rarely been compared on a spatially resolved monetized basis. In this study, we update the nitrogen scheme in an agroecosystem model to simulate the Nr emissions from fertilized soils across the contiguous United States. We then apply a reduced-form air pollution health effect model to assess air quality impacts from NOx and NH3 and a social cost of N2O to assess the climate impacts. Assuming an $8.2 million value of a statistical life and a $13,100/ton social cost of N2O, the air quality impacts are a factor of ∼7 to 15 times as large as the climate impacts in heavily populated coastal regions, whereas the ratios are closer to 2.5 in sparsely populated regions. Our results show that air pollution, health, and climate should be considered jointly in future assessments of how farming practices affect Nr emissions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lina Luo
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
| | - Limei Ran
- Nature Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Greensboro, North Carolina 27401, United States
| | - Quazi Z Rasool
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States
| | - Daniel S Cohan
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
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Fine-Grained Individual Air Quality Index (IAQI) Prediction Based on Spatial-Temporal Causal Convolution Network: A Case Study of Shanghai. ATMOSPHERE 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos13060959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/10/2022]
Abstract
Accurate and fine-grained individual air quality index (IAQI) prediction is the basis of air quality index (AQI), which is of great significance for air quality control and human health. Traditional approaches, such as time series, recurrent neural network or graph convolutional network, cannot effectively integrate spatial-temporal and meteorological factors and manage the dynamic edge relationship among scattered monitoring stations. In this paper, a ST-CCN-IAQI model is proposed based on spatial-temporal causal convolution networks. Both the spatial effects of multi-source air pollutants and meteorological factors were considered via spatial attention mechanism. Time-dependent features in the causal convolution network were extracted by stacked dilated convolution and time attention. All the hyper-parameters in ST-CCN-IAQI were tuned by Bayesian optimization. Shanghai air monitoring station data were employed with a series of baselines (AR, MA, ARMA, ANN, SVR, GRU, LSTM and ST-GCN). Final results showed that: (1) For a single station, the RMSE and MAE values of ST-CCN-IAQI were 9.873 and 7.469, decreasing by 24.95% and 16.87% on average, respectively. R2 was 0.917, with an average 5.69% improvement; (2) For all nine stations, the mean RMSE and MAE of ST-CCN-IAQI were 9.849 and 7.527, respectively, and the R2 value was 0.906. (3) Shapley analysis showed PM10, humidity and NO2 were the most influencing factors in ST-CCN-IAQI. The Friedman test, under different resampling, further confirmed the advantage of ST-CCN-IAQI. The ST-CCN-IAQI provides a promising direction for fine-grained IAQI prediction.
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Thakrar SK, Tessum CW, Apte JS, Balasubramanian S, Millet DB, Pandis SN, Marshall JD, Hill JD. Global, high-resolution, reduced-complexity air quality modeling for PM2.5 using InMAP (Intervention Model for Air Pollution). PLoS One 2022; 17:e0268714. [PMID: 35613109 PMCID: PMC9132322 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Each year, millions of premature deaths worldwide are caused by exposure to outdoor air pollution, especially fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Designing policies to reduce these deaths relies on air quality modeling for estimating changes in PM2.5 concentrations from many scenarios at high spatial resolution. However, air quality modeling typically has substantial requirements for computation and expertise, which limits policy design, especially in countries where most PM2.5-related deaths occur. Lower requirement reduced-complexity models exist but are generally unavailable worldwide. Here, we adapt InMAP, a reduced-complexity model originally developed for the United States, to simulate annual-average primary and secondary PM2.5 concentrations across a global-through-urban spatial domain: “Global InMAP”. Global InMAP uses a variable resolution grid, with horizontal grid cell widths ranging from 500 km in remote locations to 4km in urban locations. We evaluate Global InMAP performance against both measurements and a state-of-the-science chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem. Against measurements, InMAP predicts total PM2.5 concentrations with a normalized mean error of 62%, compared to 41% for GEOS-Chem. For the emission scenarios considered, Global InMAP reproduced GEOS-Chem pollutant concentrations with a normalized mean bias of 59%–121%, which is sufficient for initial policy assessment and scoping. Global InMAP can be run on a desktop computer; simulations here took 2.6–8.4 hours. This work presents a global, open-source, reduced-complexity air quality model to facilitate policy assessment worldwide, providing a screening tool for reducing air pollution-related deaths where they occur most.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sumil K. Thakrar
- Department of Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
- Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
- * E-mail: (SKT); (JDH)
| | - Christopher W. Tessum
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Joshua S. Apte
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Srinidhi Balasubramanian
- Department of Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
| | - Dylan B. Millet
- Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
| | - Spyros N. Pandis
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece
| | - Julian D. Marshall
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Jason D. Hill
- Department of Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
- * E-mail: (SKT); (JDH)
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Cao H, Henze DK, Zhu L, Shephard MW, Cady‐Pereira K, Dammers E, Sitwell M, Heath N, Lonsdale C, Bash JO, Miyazaki K, Flechard C, Fauvel Y, Kruit RW, Feigenspan S, Brümmer C, Schrader F, Twigg MM, Leeson S, Tang YS, Stephens ACM, Braban C, Vincent K, Meier M, Seitler E, Geels C, Ellermann T, Sanocka A, Capps SL. 4D-Var Inversion of European NH 3 Emissions Using CrIS NH 3 Measurements and GEOS-Chem Adjoint With Bi-Directional and Uni-Directional Flux Schemes. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH. ATMOSPHERES : JGR 2022; 127:e2021JD035687. [PMID: 35865809 PMCID: PMC9286853 DOI: 10.1029/2021jd035687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Revised: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
We conduct the first 4D-Var inversion of NH3 accounting for NH3 bi-directional flux, using CrIS satellite NH3 observations over Europe in 2016. We find posterior NH3 emissions peak more in springtime than prior emissions at continental to national scales, and annually they are generally smaller than the prior emissions over central Europe, but larger over most of the rest of Europe. Annual posterior anthropogenic NH3 emissions for 25 European Union members (EU25) are 25% higher than the prior emissions and very close (<2% difference) to other inventories. Our posterior annual anthropogenic emissions for EU25, the UK, the Netherlands, and Switzerland are generally 10%-20% smaller than when treating NH3 fluxes as uni-directional emissions, while the monthly regional difference can be up to 34% (Switzerland in July). Compared to monthly mean in-situ observations, our posterior NH3 emissions from both schemes generally improve the magnitude and seasonality of simulated surface NH3 and bulk NH x wet deposition throughout most of Europe, whereas evaluation against hourly measurements at a background site shows the bi-directional scheme better captures observed diurnal variability of surface NH3. This contrast highlights the need for accurately simulating diurnal variability of NH3 in assimilation of sun-synchronous observations and also the potential value of future geostationary satellite observations. Overall, our top-down ammonia emissions can help to examine the effectiveness of air pollution control policies to facilitate future air pollution management, as well as helping us understand the uncertainty in top-down NH3 emissions estimates associated with treatment of NH3 surface exchange.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Liye Zhu
- Sun Yat‐sen UniversityZhuhaiChina
| | | | | | - Enrico Dammers
- Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)Climate Air and Sustainability (CAS)UtrechtThe Netherlands
| | | | - Nicholas Heath
- Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc.LexingtonMAUSA
| | - Chantelle Lonsdale
- Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental EngineeringUniversity at BuffaloBuffaloNYUSA
| | | | - Kazuyuki Miyazaki
- Jet Propulsion LaboratoryCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPasadenaCAUSA
| | - Christophe Flechard
- INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment)UMR SASAgrocampus OuestRennesFrance
| | - Yannick Fauvel
- INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment)UMR SASAgrocampus OuestRennesFrance
| | - Roy Wichink Kruit
- National Institute for Public Health and the EnvironmentBilthovenThe Netherlands
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Mario Meier
- Forschungsstelle für UmweltbeobachtungSankt GallenSwitzerland
| | - Eva Seitler
- Forschungsstelle für UmweltbeobachtungSankt GallenSwitzerland
| | - Camilla Geels
- Department of Environmental ScienceAarhus UniversityAarhusDenmark
| | - Thomas Ellermann
- Department of Environmental ScienceAarhus UniversityAarhusDenmark
| | | | - Shannon L. Capps
- Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering DepartmentDrexel UniversityPhiladelphiaPAUSAmailto:
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Mailloux NA, Abel DW, Holloway T, Patz JA. Nationwide and Regional PM 2.5-Related Air Quality Health Benefits From the Removal of Energy-Related Emissions in the United States. GEOHEALTH 2022; 6:e2022GH000603. [PMID: 35599962 PMCID: PMC9109601 DOI: 10.1029/2022gh000603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2022] [Revised: 03/30/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Clean energy policy can provide substantial health benefits through improved air quality. As ambitious clean energy proposals are increasingly considered and adopted across the United States (US), quantifying the benefits of removal of such large air pollution emissions sources is crucial to understanding potential societal impacts of such policy. In this study, we estimate health benefits resulting from the elimination of emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides from the electric power, transportation, building, and industrial sectors in the contiguous US. We use EPA's CO-Benefits Risk Assessment screening tool to estimate health benefits resulting from the removal of PM2.5-related emissions from these energy-related sectors. We find that nationwide efforts to eliminate energy-related emissions could prevent 53,200 (95% CI: 46,900-59,400) premature deaths each year and provide $608 billion ($537-$678 billion) in benefits from avoided PM2.5-related illness and death. We also find that an average of 69% (range: 32%-95%) of the health benefits from emissions removal remain in the emitting region. Our study provides an indication of the potential scale and distribution of public health benefits that could result from ambitious regional and nationwide clean energy and climate mitigation policy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas A. Mailloux
- Center for Sustainability and the Global EnvironmentNelson Institute for Environmental StudiesUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonMadisonWIUSA
| | - David W. Abel
- Center for Sustainability and the Global EnvironmentNelson Institute for Environmental StudiesUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonMadisonWIUSA
| | - Tracey Holloway
- Center for Sustainability and the Global EnvironmentNelson Institute for Environmental StudiesUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonMadisonWIUSA
- Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic SciencesUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonMadisonWIUSA
| | - Jonathan A. Patz
- Center for Sustainability and the Global EnvironmentNelson Institute for Environmental StudiesUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonMadisonWIUSA
- Department of Population Health SciencesUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonMadisonWIUSA
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Humes M, Wang M, Kim S, Machesky JE, Gentner DR, Robinson AL, Donahue NM, Presto AA. Limited Secondary Organic Aerosol Production from Acyclic Oxygenated Volatile Chemical Products. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2022; 56:4806-4815. [PMID: 35394777 PMCID: PMC9022650 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c07354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Revised: 03/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Volatile chemical products (VCPs) have recently been identified as potentially important unconventional sources of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), in part due to the mitigation of conventional emissions such as vehicle exhaust. Here, we report measurements of SOA production in an oxidation flow reactor from a series of common VCPs containing oxygenated functional groups and at least one oxygen within the molecular backbone. These include two oxygenated aromatic species (phenoxyethanol and 1-phenoxy-2-propanol), two esters (butyl butyrate and butyl acetate), and four glycol ethers (carbitol, methyl carbitol, butyl carbitol, and hexyl carbitol). We measured gas- and particle-phase products with a suite of mass spectrometers and particle-sizing instruments. Only the aromatic VCPs produce SOA with substantial yields. For the acyclic VCPs, ether and ester functionality promotes fragmentation and hinders autoxidation, whereas aromatic rings drive SOA formation in spite of the presence of ether groups. Therefore, our results suggest that a potential strategy to reduce urban SOA from VCPs would be to reformulate consumer products to include less oxygenated aromatic compounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mackenzie
B. Humes
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
| | - Mingyi Wang
- Department
of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
| | - Sunhye Kim
- Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
| | - Jo E. Machesky
- Department
of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States
| | - Drew R. Gentner
- Department
of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States
| | - Allen L. Robinson
- Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
| | - Neil M. Donahue
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
- Department
of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
| | - Albert A. Presto
- Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
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43
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Agbafe V, Berlin NL, Butler CE, Hawk E, Offodile Ii AC. Prescriptions for Mitigating Climate Change-Related Externalities in Cancer Care: A Surgeon's Perspective. J Clin Oncol 2022; 40:1976-1979. [PMID: 35333584 DOI: 10.1200/jco.21.02581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Victor Agbafe
- University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI
| | | | - Charles E Butler
- Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
| | - Ernest Hawk
- Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
| | - Anaeze C Offodile Ii
- Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.,Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Houston, TX
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Glazener A, Wylie J, van Waas W, Khreis H. The Impacts of Car-Free Days and Events on the Environment and Human Health. Curr Environ Health Rep 2022; 9:165-182. [PMID: 35146704 PMCID: PMC8831014 DOI: 10.1007/s40572-022-00342-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Purpose of review In this paper, we seek to elucidate the impact of car-free days and events on human health. Car-free days and events are often designed to alleviate the impact of transportation-related air pollution, noise, physical inactivity, traffic congestion, or other detrimental externalities of private motor vehicle travel. We reviewed existing peer-reviewed and gray literature to understand the variety of potential public health impacts that have been measured as a result of car-free days or events and associated changes in environmental exposures and lifestyles. Recent findings The impacts of car-free days and events are highly variable and seem to depend on the scope (frequency, duration, and geographic size) and goals of each car-free day and event. Most of the existing literature measures impacts in terms of air and noise pollution and some studies focus on physical activity metrics. In some cases, car-free days and events were successful in reducing the concentration of certain air pollutants but had little or adverse impacts on the concentration of others. Often, traffic is diverted from cordoned areas to surrounding streets, displacing traffic congestion and adverse environmental exposures to other areas of a city, with potential understudied implications to environmental justice. Summary Car-free days and events are often an attractive policy option; however, they require intensive planning to be successful. The organization and execution of car-free days and events, as well as public support and stakeholder engagement, greatly influence the level of success and the sustainability of such initiatives. Health benefits may be a palatable and convincing argument to the general public. However, very few studies focus on actual health impacts associated with car-free days and events. Future research could be most useful if it focused on measuring health outcomes associated with car-free days and events through longitudinal studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Glazener
- Community and Regional Planning Program, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - James Wylie
- Solar Impulse Foundation, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Willem van Waas
- Department of Traffic and Public Space, Municipality of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Haneen Khreis
- MRC Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, UK. .,Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health (CARTEEH), Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), College Station, TX, 77843-3135, USA.
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45
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Kalashnikov DA, Schnell JL, Abatzoglou JT, Swain DL, Singh D. Increasing co-occurrence of fine particulate matter and ground-level ozone extremes in the western United States. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabi9386. [PMID: 34985958 PMCID: PMC8730618 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi9386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Accepted: 11/11/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Wildfires and meteorological conditions influence the co-occurrence of multiple harmful air pollutants including fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ground-level ozone. We examine the spatiotemporal characteristics of PM2.5/ozone co-occurrences and associated population exposure in the western United States (US). The frequency, spatial extent, and temporal persistence of extreme PM2.5/ozone co-occurrences have increased significantly between 2001 and 2020, increasing annual population exposure to multiple harmful air pollutants by ~25 million person-days/year. Using a clustering methodology to characterize daily weather patterns, we identify significant increases in atmospheric ridging patterns conducive to widespread PM2.5/ozone co-occurrences and population exposure. We further link the spatial extent of co-occurrence to the extent of extreme heat and wildfires. Our results suggest an increasing potential for co-occurring air pollution episodes in the western US with continued climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmitri A. Kalashnikov
- School of the Environment, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA, USA
| | - Jordan L. Schnell
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, NOAA/Global Systems Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - John T. Abatzoglou
- Management of Complex Systems Department, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Daniel L. Swain
- Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
- The Nature Conservancy of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Deepti Singh
- School of the Environment, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA, USA
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Bae JS, Oh SB, Kim J, Kim H, Kim JH, Kim EH, Cho KJ, Mo JH. Particulate Matter Exposure Aggravates IL-17-Induced Eye and Nose Inflammation in an OVA/Poly(I:C) Mouse Model. ALLERGY, ASTHMA & IMMUNOLOGY RESEARCH 2022; 14:59-72. [PMID: 34983107 PMCID: PMC8724832 DOI: 10.4168/aair.2022.14.1.59] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2021] [Revised: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE Data on the effects of direct particulate matter (PM) exposure on the eyes and the nose are limited. Here, an interleukin (IL)-17/neutrophil-dominant ovalbumin (OVA)/polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (Poly(I:C)) mouse model was used to evaluate the effect of different-sized titanium dioxide (TiO2) particles on the eyes and the nose. We also examined whether IL-17-neutralizing antibody (IL-17Ab) treatment could reverse TiO2 effects. METHODS The nasal cavities and conjunctival sacs of each mouse were challenged with OVA and Poly(I:C) to induce neutrophil-dominant inflammation and then exposed to micro- and nano-TiO2. Subsequently, IL-17Ab was administered to investigate the role of IL-17 and inflammatory parameters. RESULTS Micro- and nano-TiO2 resulted in significant decreases in tear-break-up time and increases in corneal damage. Airborne micro-TiO2 also increased nasal rubbing and sneezing counts compared with the OVA/Poly(I:C). Micro-TiO2 exposure increased infiltration of neutrophils and IL-17A+ cells in the conjunctival tissues and the nasal mucosae. In addition, these increased symptoms and inflammation in the eyes and the nose by micro-TiO2 exposure were inhibited by the IL-17Ab, suggesting IL-17 dependency. CONCLUSIONS TiO2 aggravated IL-17-induced eye and nose inflammation and the IL-17Ab alleviated inflammation in the OVA/Poly(I:C) mouse model. These results may help develop a therapeutic modality for PM exposure and provide evidence for PM-associated diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun-Sang Bae
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.,Beckman Laser Institute Korea, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.,Medical Laser Research Center, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea
| | - Soo Bin Oh
- Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.,Catholic Institute for Visual Science, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
| | - Jeongyun Kim
- Department of Physics, College of Natural Sciences, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea
| | - Hoon Kim
- Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea
| | - Ji Hye Kim
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.,Beckman Laser Institute Korea, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea
| | - Eun-Hee Kim
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.,Beckman Laser Institute Korea, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea
| | - Kyong Jin Cho
- Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.
| | - Ji-Hun Mo
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.,Beckman Laser Institute Korea, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.,Medical Laser Research Center, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.
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47
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Health benefits of decreases in on-road transportation emissions in the United States from 2008 to 2017. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2107402118. [PMID: 34903648 PMCID: PMC8713776 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2107402118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Decades of air pollution regulation have yielded enormous benefits in the United States, but vehicle emissions remain a climate and public health issue. Studies have quantified the vehicle-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5)-attributable mortality but lack the combination of proper counterfactual scenarios, latest epidemiological evidence, and detailed spatial resolution; all needed to assess the benefits of recent emission reductions. We use this combination to assess PM2.5-attributable health benefits and also assess the climate benefits of on-road emission reductions between 2008 and 2017. We estimate total benefits of $270 (190 to 480) billion in 2017. Vehicle-related PM2.5-attributable deaths decreased from 27,700 in 2008 to 19,800 in 2017; however, had per-mile emission factors remained at 2008 levels, 48,200 deaths would have occurred in 2017. The 74% increase from 27,700 to 48,200 PM2.5-attributable deaths with the same emission factors is due to lower baseline PM2.5 concentrations (+26%), more vehicle miles and fleet composition changes (+22%), higher baseline mortality (+13%), and interactions among these (+12%). Climate benefits were small (3 to 19% of the total). The percent reductions in emissions and PM2.5-attributable deaths were similar despite an opportunity to achieve disproportionately large health benefits by reducing high-impact emissions of passenger light-duty vehicles in urban areas. Increasingly large vehicles and an aging population, increasing mortality, suggest large health benefits in urban areas require more stringent policies. Local policies can be effective because high-impact primary PM2.5 and NH3 emissions disperse little outside metropolitan areas. Complementary national-level policies for NOx are merited because of its substantial impacts-with little spatial variability-and dispersion across states and metropolitan areas.
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Motte J, Alvarenga RAF, Thybaut JW, Dewulf J. Quantification of the global and regional impacts of gas flaring on human health via spatial differentiation. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2021; 291:118213. [PMID: 34563848 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Revised: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 09/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Globally, gas flaring caused 350 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2018. In addition to climate change, this burning practice also has other negative consequences for humans (e.g., respiratory problems) and the environment. The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of flaring on human health (at the global and country level) via the calculation of the number of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) caused by the combustion of associated gas. For this quantification, gas flaring emissions were linked with midpoint indicators (e.g., climate change) in life cycle assessment (LCA) for all selected countries. Regionalised characterisation factors (CFs) were applied in the impact assessment to allow for spatial differentiation. The global impact on human health caused by flaring was obtained by taking the sum for all countries. The results show that these flaring emissions globally cause 4.83 × 105 DALYs or 6.19 × 10-5 DALYs/person on an annual basis. This amounts to 0.12% of the total DALYs related to air pollution (from PM2.5) caused by all polluting sectors and 6.51% of the total DALYs related to climate change. To quantify these impacts, this study uses a country perspective rather than considering local characteristics. Thus, if more precise information at a more local level (e.g., city level) is sought, additional factors (e.g., meteorological conditions) should be taken into account. Finally, future research should also focus on the benefits of gas flaring reduction techniques to enable the selection of the most promising technologies for the elimination of gas flaring and its effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordy Motte
- Research Group Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN), Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
| | - Rodrigo A F Alvarenga
- Research Group Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN), Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Joris W Thybaut
- Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT), Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering, Ghent University, Technologiepark 125, 9052, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Jo Dewulf
- Research Group Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN), Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
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Spiller E, Proville J, Roy A, Muller NZ. Mortality Risk from PM2.5: A Comparison of Modeling Approaches to Identify Disparities across Racial/Ethnic Groups in Policy Outcomes. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2021; 129:127004. [PMID: 34878311 PMCID: PMC8653772 DOI: 10.1289/ehp9001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Regulatory analyses of air pollution policies require the use of concentration-response functions and underlying health data to estimate the mortality and morbidity effects, as well as the resulting benefits, associated with policy-related changes in fine particulate matter ≤2.5μm (PM2.5)]. Common practice by U.S. federal agencies involves using underlying health data and concentration-response functions that are not differentiated by racial/ethnic group. OBJECTIVES We aim to explore the policy implications of using race/ethnicity-specific concentration-response functions and mortality data in comparison to standard approaches when estimating the impact of air pollution on non-White racial/ethnic subgroups. METHODS Using new estimates from the epidemiological literature on race/ethnicity-specific concentration-response functions paired with race/ethnicity-specific mortality rates, we estimated the mortality impacts of air pollution from all sources from a uniform increase in concentrations and from the regulations imposed by the Mercury Air Toxics Standards. RESULTS Use of race/ethnicity-specific information increased PM2.5-related premature mortality estimates in older populations by 9% and among older Black Americans by 150% for all-source pollution exposure. Under a uniform degradation of air quality and race/ethnicity-specific information, older Black Americans were found to have approximately 3 times higher mortality relative to White Americans, which is obscured under a non-race/ethnicity-specific modeling approach. Standard approaches of using non-racial/ethnic specific information underestimate the benefits of the Mercury Air Toxics Standards to older Black Americans by almost 60% and overestimate the benefits to older White Americans by 14% relative to using a race/ethnicity-specific modeling approach. DISCUSSION Policy analyses incorporating race/ethnicity-specific concentration-response functions and mortality data relative to nondifferentiated inputs underestimate the overall magnitude of PM2.5 mortality burden and the disparity in impacts on older Black American populations. Based on our results, we recommend that the best available race/ethnicity-specific inputs are used in regulatory assessments to understand and reduce environmental injustices. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9001.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Ananya Roy
- Environmental Defense Fund, New York, New York, USA
| | - Nicholas Z. Muller
- Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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Excess Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Air Pollution above American Thoracic Society Recommended Standards, 2017-2019. Ann Am Thorac Soc 2021; 19:603-613. [PMID: 34847333 DOI: 10.1513/annalsats.202107-860oc] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Rationale: Over the past year, the American Thoracic Society (ATS), led by its Environmental Health Policy Committee, has reviewed the most current air quality scientific evidence and has revised their recommendations to 8 µg/m3 and 25 µg/m3 for long- and short-term fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and reaffirmed the recommendation of 60 ppb for ozone to protect the American public from the known adverse health effects of air pollution. The current EPA standards, in contrast, expose the American public to pollution levels that are known to result in significant morbidity and mortality. Objectives: To provide county-level estimates of annual air pollution-related health outcomes across the United States using the most recent federal air quality data, and to support the ATS's recent update to the long-term PM2.5 recommended standard. This study is presented as part of the annual ATS/Marron Institute "Health of the Air" report. Methods: Daily air pollution values were obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Air Quality System for monitored counties in the United States from 2017-2019. Concentration-response functions used in the EPA's regulatory review process were applied to pollution increments corresponding to differences between the rolling 3-year design values and ATS-recommended levels for long-term PM2.5 (8 µg/m3), short-term PM2.5 (25 µg/m3), and ground-level ozone (O3; 60 ppb). Health impacts were estimated at the county level in locations with valid monitoring data. Results: Meeting ATS recommendations throughout the country prevents an estimated 14,650 (95% CI: 8,660 - 22,610) deaths; 2,950 (95% CI: 1,530 - 4,330) lung cancer incidence events; 33,100 (95% CI: 7,300 - 71,000) morbidities, and 39.8 million (95% CI: 14.6 - 63.3 million) impacted days annually (see Table 1). This prevents 11,850 more deaths; 2,580 more lung cancer incidence events; 25,400 more morbidities; and 27.2 million more impacted days than meeting EPA standards alone. Conclusions: Significant health benefits to be gained by U.S. communities that work to meet ATS-recommended air quality standards have now been identified under scenarios meeting the new ATS recommendation for long-term PM2.5 (8 µg/m3). The "Health of the Air" report presents an opportunity for air quality managers to quantify local health burdens and EPA officials to update their standards to reflect the latest science.
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