When living in a city, greenways can make a significant difference not just for your mental health but also for your physical health. Indeed, according to a new study, reducing air pollution from energy-related activity in the U.S. could avert more than 50,000 early deaths each year.
The study, which was published today in the journal GeoHealth, details the health benefits of having removed dangerous fine particulates thrown into the environment by electricity generation, transportation, industrial activities, and building functions such as heating and cooking — all of which are major sources of carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change because they rely on burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas.
This work, according to lead author Nick Mailloux, “provides a sense of the scale of the air quality health benefits that could accompany deep decarbonization of the U.S. energy system.”
According to him, “shifting to clean energy sources can provide enormous benefit for public health in the near term while mitigating climate change in the longer term.”
Mailloux used a model from the US Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate the health benefits of a complete reduction in fine particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions while working with experts specialized in air quality and public health. Once discharged into the atmosphere, these chemicals can produce particulate pollution.
These pollutants cause health problems such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and lower respiratory infections, all of which can reduce people’s lives substantially. According to the researchers’ calculations, eliminating these pollutants would save roughly 53,200 lives per year in the United States, generating about $608 billion in benefits from avoided healthcare expenses and loss of life.
The researchers also looked at the health implications of localities acting independently to cut emissions rather than as part of a coordinated national effort. Because of geographical differences in energy use and population, the consequences can vary greatly across the United States.
If Arizona, California, and Nevada worked together to remove fine particle pollution, the Southwest would reap 95 percent of the benefits.
“In the Mountain region, though, most of the benefit of emissions removal is felt somewhere else,” says Mailloux. “Just 32 percent of the benefit remains in states in the Mountain region. This is partly because there are large population centers downwind of the Mountain region that would also benefit.”
Every region of the country benefits more from national action than from local efforts in reducing emissions.
“The Great Plains, for example, gets more than twice as much benefit from nationwide efforts as it does from acting alone,” adds Mailloux. “The more that states and regions can coordinate their emissions reductions efforts, the greater the benefit they can provide to us all.”
The researchers hope that by detailing the near-term benefits in addition to the concerns of longer-term climate impacts, the new study would encourage further climate action.
“Our analysis is timely, following last month’s report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that called for urgent action to transform the world’s energy economy,” adds Jonathan Patz, senior author of the study.
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