A study estimates the damages due to particulate matter air pollution in the United States. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a major cause of premature mortality in the United States. The health impacts of air pollution depend on location. Andrew Goodkind and colleagues developed a model to calculate location-specific damages due to primary PM2.5 and PM2.5 precursor emissions. Applying the model to the US Environmental Protection Agency 2011 National Emissions Inventory revealed considerable variability in damages per ton emitted by location, with the most harmful 10% of emissions responsible for nearly half of the total damages. The authors estimated 107,000 total cases of premature death in the United States due to anthropogenic PM2.5 in 2011, with a societal cost of $886 billion. Emissions associated with energy consumption contributed to more than half of the damages. One-third of damages occurred within 8 km of the emissions source, whereas one-quarter of the damages occurred more than 256 km from the source, suggesting that both local and long-distance impacts contribute significantly to the overall impacts. According to the authors, the results highlight the importance of modeling emissions at fine spatial scales and could help prioritize emissions mitigation efforts.
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Article #18-16102: "Fine-scale damage estimates of particulate matter air pollution reveal opportunities for location-specific mitigation of emissions," by Andrew L. Goodkind, Christopher W. Tessum, Jay S. Coggins, Jason D. Hill, and Julian D. Marshall.
MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Goodkind, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM; tel: 651-295-0264; e-mail: <agoodkind@unm.edu>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences