Background: The health impacts of ambient air pollution impose large costs on society. Although all people are exposed to air pollution, the older population (ie, those aged ≥60 years) tends to be disproportionally a...
Background: The health impacts of ambient air pollution impose large costs on society. Although all people are exposed to air pollution, the older population (ie, those aged ≥60 years) tends to be disproportionally affected. As a result, there is growing concern about the health impacts of air pollution as many countries undergo rapid population ageing. We investigated the spatial and temporal variation in the economic cost of deaths attributable to ambient air pollution and its interaction with population ageing from 2000 to 2016 at global and regional levels. Methods: In this global analysis, we developed an age-adjusted measure of the value of a statistical life-year (VSLY) to estimate the economic cost of deaths attributable to ambient PM2·5 pollution using Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 data and country-level socioeconomic information. First, we estimated the global age-specific and cause-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) attributable to PM2·5 pollution using the global exposure mortality model and global estimates of exposure at 0·1° × 0·1° (about 11 km × 11 km at the equator) resolution. Second, for each year between 2000 and 2016, we translated the YLLs within each age group into a health-related cost using a country-specific, age-adjusted measure of VSLY. Third, we decomposed the major driving factors that contributed to the temporal change in health costs related to PM2·5. Finally, we did a sensitivity test to analyse the variability of the estimated health costs to four alternative valuation measures. We identified the uncertainty intervals (UIs) from 1000 draws of the parameters and concentration–response functions by age, cause, country, and year. All economic values are reported in 2011 purchasing power parity-adjusted US dollars. All simulations were done with R, version 3.6.0. Findings: Globally, in 2016, PM2·5 was estimated to have caused 8·42 million (95% U
Investigation of mercury (Hg) from atmospheric precipitation is important for evaluating its ecological impacts and developing mitigation strategies. Western China, which includes the Tibetan Plateau and the Xinjiang ...
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Investigation of mercury (Hg) from atmospheric precipitation is important for evaluating its ecological impacts and developing mitigation strategies. Western China, which includes the Tibetan Plateau and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is one of the most remote region in the world and is understudied in regards to Hg precipitation. Here we report seesaw-like patterns in spatial variations of precipitation Hg in Western China, based on Hg speciation measurements at nine stations over this remote region. The Hg fraction analyzed included total Hg (Hg T ), particulate-bound Hg (Hg P ) and methylmercury (MeHg). Spatially, Hg T concentrations and percentage of Hg P in precipitation were markedly greater in the westerlies domain than those in the monsoon domain, but the higher wet Hg T flux, MeHg concentration and percentage of MeHg in precipitation mainly occurred in the monsoon domain. Similar spatial patterns of wet Hg deposition were also obtained from GEOS-Chem modeling. We show that the disparity of anthropogenic and natural drivers between the two domains are mainly responsible for this seesaw-like spatial patterns of precipitation Hg in Western China. Our study may provide a baseline for assessment of environmental Hg pollution in Western China, and subsequently assist in protecting this remote alpine ecosystem.
Air pollution contributes to the premature deaths of millions of people each year around the world, and air quality problems are growing in many developing nations. While past policy efforts have succeeded in reducing...
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Background Adoption of electric vehicles has the potential to reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, hence China has implemented policies incentivising use of electric vehicles. However, much is unknown ab...
Background Adoption of electric vehicles has the potential to reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, hence China has implemented policies incentivising use of electric vehicles. However, much is unknown about the potential air quality and public health benefits of electric vehicles, including optimal vehicle type prioritisation and the vehicles' ability to reduce acute health impacts due to extreme air quality events. We aimed to assess the potential climate and acute public health benefits of use of electric vehicles during an extreme winter air pollution event. Methods In this modelling study, we used the Weather Research Forecast and Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling system air quality model to simulate the interplay between weather and atmospheric chemistry. We used this model to examine potential co-benefits of electric vehicle adoption during an extreme pollution episode in China. We simulated heavy-duty and light-duty electric vehicle adoption scenarios, in which 40% of the population adopted a heavy-duty or light-duty passenger electric vehicle, re-mapped battery power needs to energy generation facilities, and characterised differences in public health outcomes using China-specific concentration-response functions. Findings We found that widespread adoption of heavy-duty electric vehicles would reduces nitric oxide and fine particulate matter resulting in 562 (95% CI 410–723) fewer premature acute deaths than the non-electrified baseline scenario. However, widespread adoption of heavy-duty electric vehicles does not reduce carbon dioxide emissions without the addition of emission-free electricity generation. By contrast, widespread adoption of light-duty electric vehicles robustly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but results in lesser air quality improvements and fewer premature deaths avoided (145 [95% CI 38–333]) than the heavy-duty scenario. Economic effects of human health endpoints and carbon dioxide reductions for adoption of ligh
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