Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in stay-at-home policies and other social distancing behaviors in the United States in spring of 2020. This paper examines the impact that these actions had on emissions and expected health effects through reduced personal vehicle travel and electricity consumption. Us...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/8/951 |
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| author | Steve Cicala Stephen P. Holland Erin T. Mansur Nicholas Z. Muller Andrew J. Yates |
| author_facet | Steve Cicala Stephen P. Holland Erin T. Mansur Nicholas Z. Muller Andrew J. Yates |
| author_sort | Steve Cicala |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in stay-at-home policies and other social distancing behaviors in the United States in spring of 2020. This paper examines the impact that these actions had on emissions and expected health effects through reduced personal vehicle travel and electricity consumption. Using daily cell phone mobility data for each U.S. county, we find that vehicle travel dropped about 40% by mid-April across the nation. States that imposed stay-at-home policies before March 28 decreased travel slightly more than other states, but travel in all states decreased significantly. Using data on hourly electricity consumption by electricity region (e.g., balancing authority), we find that electricity consumption fell about 6% on average by mid-April with substantial heterogeneity. Given these decreases in travel and electricity use, we estimate the county-level expected improvements in air quality, and, therefore, expected declines in mortality. Overall, we estimate that, for a month of social distancing, the expected premature deaths due to air pollution from personal vehicle travel and electricity consumption declined by approximately 360 deaths, or about 25% of the baseline 1500 deaths. In addition, we estimate that CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from these sources fell by 46 million metric tons (a reduction of approximately 19%) over the same time frame. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T09:00:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9c9961193aba44b49793d4a14dd9eda0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T09:00:35Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-9c9961193aba44b49793d4a14dd9eda02023-11-22T06:46:53ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332021-07-0112895110.3390/atmos12080951Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social DistancingSteve Cicala0Stephen P. Holland1Erin T. Mansur2Nicholas Z. Muller3Andrew J. Yates4Department of Economics, Tufts University and NBER, 317 Braker Hall, 8 Upper Campus Rd., Medford, MA 02155, USADepartment of Economics, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and NBER, Bryan 462, Greensboro, NC 27402, USATuck School of Business at Dartmouth and NBER, 100 Tuck Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USADepartment of Engineering and Public Policy, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University and NBER, Posner 254C, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USADepartment of Economics and Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USAThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in stay-at-home policies and other social distancing behaviors in the United States in spring of 2020. This paper examines the impact that these actions had on emissions and expected health effects through reduced personal vehicle travel and electricity consumption. Using daily cell phone mobility data for each U.S. county, we find that vehicle travel dropped about 40% by mid-April across the nation. States that imposed stay-at-home policies before March 28 decreased travel slightly more than other states, but travel in all states decreased significantly. Using data on hourly electricity consumption by electricity region (e.g., balancing authority), we find that electricity consumption fell about 6% on average by mid-April with substantial heterogeneity. Given these decreases in travel and electricity use, we estimate the county-level expected improvements in air quality, and, therefore, expected declines in mortality. Overall, we estimate that, for a month of social distancing, the expected premature deaths due to air pollution from personal vehicle travel and electricity consumption declined by approximately 360 deaths, or about 25% of the baseline 1500 deaths. In addition, we estimate that CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from these sources fell by 46 million metric tons (a reduction of approximately 19%) over the same time frame.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/8/951air pollutionCOVID-19social distancingcarbon emissions |
| spellingShingle | Steve Cicala Stephen P. Holland Erin T. Mansur Nicholas Z. Muller Andrew J. Yates Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing Atmosphere air pollution COVID-19 social distancing carbon emissions |
| title | Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing |
| title_full | Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing |
| title_fullStr | Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing |
| title_short | Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing |
| title_sort | expected health effects of reduced air pollution from covid 19 social distancing |
| topic | air pollution COVID-19 social distancing carbon emissions |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/8/951 |
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