Quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of Boston

Cities around the world are taking action to limit greenhouse gas emissions through ambitious climate targets and climate action plans. These strategies are likely to simultaneously improve local air quality, leading to public health and monetary co-benefits. We quantify and monetarily value the hea...

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Main Authors: Matthew Raifman, Armistead G Russell, T Nash Skipper, Patrick L Kinney
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2020-01-01
Series:Environmental Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab842b
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author Matthew Raifman
Armistead G Russell
T Nash Skipper
Patrick L Kinney
author_facet Matthew Raifman
Armistead G Russell
T Nash Skipper
Patrick L Kinney
author_sort Matthew Raifman
collection DOAJ
description Cities around the world are taking action to limit greenhouse gas emissions through ambitious climate targets and climate action plans. These strategies are likely to simultaneously improve local air quality, leading to public health and monetary co-benefits. We quantify and monetarily value the health impacts of eliminating emissions from the City of Boston, and in doing so, highlight the importance of considering health impacts alongside environmental impacts of local climate action. We simulated at a 4 km resolution how the elimination of anthropogenic emissions from the City of Boston would impact air quality within a 120 km by 120 km study domain. We then estimated how this change in air quality would impact a number of annual health outcomes, as well as the associated monetary savings. We found that eliminating anthropogenic emissions from Boston would result in a decline in PM _2.5 concentration across the entire study region ranging from 8.5 µ g m ^−3 in Boston to less than 1 µ g m ^−3 elsewhere in the domain. In addition, we estimate that summer ozone would increase for the Greater Boston Area and areas west, and decrease elsewhere. The monetary impact of the change in air quality on health is estimated to be a $2.4 billion per year savings across the full domain and $1.7 billion within Suffolk County only, about 1.4% of the gross domestic product of the county. These monetary impacts are driven primarily by reduced incidence of mortality. We estimate that 288 deaths would be avoided per year across the study domain from eliminating Boston anthropogenic emissions, about six deaths avoided, annually, per 100 000 people. Within Suffolk County, we estimate that 47 deaths would be avoided per 100 000 people, around 16% of all-cause premature mortality. We also found a net decrease in cardiovascular and respiratory illness. Across the study domain, these health benefits would be disproportionately conferred upon people of color.
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spelling doaj.art-907d6fc5301442429eea9588f794c0cd2023-08-09T15:07:24ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262020-01-0115909401710.1088/1748-9326/ab842bQuantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of BostonMatthew Raifman0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7141-0125Armistead G Russell1T Nash Skipper2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4953-8736Patrick L Kinney3Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health , Boston, MA, United States of AmericaSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, GA, United States of AmericaSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, GA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health , Boston, MA, United States of AmericaCities around the world are taking action to limit greenhouse gas emissions through ambitious climate targets and climate action plans. These strategies are likely to simultaneously improve local air quality, leading to public health and monetary co-benefits. We quantify and monetarily value the health impacts of eliminating emissions from the City of Boston, and in doing so, highlight the importance of considering health impacts alongside environmental impacts of local climate action. We simulated at a 4 km resolution how the elimination of anthropogenic emissions from the City of Boston would impact air quality within a 120 km by 120 km study domain. We then estimated how this change in air quality would impact a number of annual health outcomes, as well as the associated monetary savings. We found that eliminating anthropogenic emissions from Boston would result in a decline in PM _2.5 concentration across the entire study region ranging from 8.5 µ g m ^−3 in Boston to less than 1 µ g m ^−3 elsewhere in the domain. In addition, we estimate that summer ozone would increase for the Greater Boston Area and areas west, and decrease elsewhere. The monetary impact of the change in air quality on health is estimated to be a $2.4 billion per year savings across the full domain and $1.7 billion within Suffolk County only, about 1.4% of the gross domestic product of the county. These monetary impacts are driven primarily by reduced incidence of mortality. We estimate that 288 deaths would be avoided per year across the study domain from eliminating Boston anthropogenic emissions, about six deaths avoided, annually, per 100 000 people. Within Suffolk County, we estimate that 47 deaths would be avoided per 100 000 people, around 16% of all-cause premature mortality. We also found a net decrease in cardiovascular and respiratory illness. Across the study domain, these health benefits would be disproportionately conferred upon people of color.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab842bclimate changehealthair pollutionpolicymortalityparticulate matter
spellingShingle Matthew Raifman
Armistead G Russell
T Nash Skipper
Patrick L Kinney
Quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of Boston
Environmental Research Letters
climate change
health
air pollution
policy
mortality
particulate matter
title Quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of Boston
title_full Quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of Boston
title_fullStr Quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of Boston
title_full_unstemmed Quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of Boston
title_short Quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the City of Boston
title_sort quantifying the health impacts of eliminating air pollution emissions in the city of boston
topic climate change
health
air pollution
policy
mortality
particulate matter
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab842b
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