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Abstract Globally, solid biofuels (SB) have been widely used for household cooking and energy production for decades due to electricity shortages and socio‐economic barriers to adopting renewable energy alternatives. This has detrimental effects on air quality, human health, and climate through trace gas and aerosol emissions. Despite numerous studies, the long‐term consequences of SB emissions remain poorly understood. Here, we use the Community Earth System Model and the Community Emissions Data System emission inventory to investigate the SB emission impacts on air quality and human health for 2000–2019. Global SB emission increased the ambient PM2.5(particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters 2.5 μm) and ozone (O3) concentrations up to 23.61 /m3and 13.69 ppbv, with significant effects found in India, China, and the Rest of Asia (ROA). Our study estimates total annual premature deaths (APDs) associated with global SB‐attributable PM2.5and O3exposure as 1.11 million [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.00–1.22 million] in 2000 up to 1.43 million (95% CI: 1.30–1.56 million) in 2019. China's SB emissions and associated APDs have reduced substantially, whereas India and ROA had a major leap in both estimates in 2019 compared to 2000. China's progress in cutting residential SB emissions accounts for its improvements. Our study urges the reduction of SB usage and emissions to potentially improve overall air quality and human health conditions, especially in highly populated, low‐ and middle‐income countries, where the poor air quality and associated health burden attributable to SB emissions are estimated to be higher.more » « less
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Fires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are a global issue with growing importance. However, the impact of WUI fires on air quality and health is less understood compared to that of fires in wildland. We analyze WUI fire impacts on air quality and health at the global scale using a multi-scale atmospheric chemistry model—the Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols model (MUSICA). WUI fires have notable impacts on key air pollutants [e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and ozone (O3)]. The health impact of WUI fire emission is disproportionately large compared to wildland fires primarily because WUI fires are closer to human settlement. Globally, the fraction of WUI fire–caused annual premature deaths (APDs) to all fire–caused APDs is about three times of the fraction of WUI fire emissions to all fire emissions. The developed model framework can be applied to address critical needs in understanding and mitigating WUI fires and their impacts.more » « less
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Abstract Global bottom‐up anthropogenic emission inventories show substantial spatial and temporal differences of short‐lived pollutant emissions, which results in uncertainties in terms of air quality and human health impacts. In this study, we compare the emissions of trace gases and aerosols for the year 2015 from three different global emission inventories, the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS), the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Global Anthropogenic Emissions (CAMS‐GLOB‐ANT), and Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short‐Lived Pollutants version 6b (ECLIPSEv6b). We then employ the Community Atmosphere Model with chemistry version 6.0 within the Community Earth System Model version 2.2.0 to quantify the atmospheric chemistry and air quality impacts from the above three anthropogenic emission inventories, with a focus on PM2.5(particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters equal or less than 2.5 μm) and ozone (O3). Our results indicate that differences between emission inventories are largest for black carbon, organic carbon, ammonia and sulfur dioxide, in terms of global annual total emissions. These differences in emissions across CEDS, CAMS, and ECLIPSEv6b lead to substantial variations in global annual totals and spatial distribution patterns. This study shows that the global annual total PM2.5‐induced premature mortality is three times higher than that from O3mortality, indicating that PM2.5is the primary contributor compared with O3. An inter‐comparison of global human health impacts from CEDS, CAMS and ECLIPSEv6b indicates that 80% (CEDS), 81.2% (CAMS), and 77.6% (ECLIPSEv6b) of premature deaths due to anthropogenic activities are associated with Asia and Africa continents.more » « less
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Abstract Global economic development and urbanization during the past two decades have driven the increases in demand of personal and commercial vehicle fleets, especially in developing countries, which has likely resulted in changes in year-to-year vehicle tailpipe emissions associated with aerosols and trace gases. However, long-term trends of impacts of global gasoline and diesel emissions on air quality and human health are not clear. In this study, we employ the Community Earth System Model in conjunction with the newly developed Community Emissions Data System as anthropogenic emission inventory to quantify the long-term trends of impacts of global gasoline and diesel emissions on ambient air quality and human health for the period of 2000–2015. Global gasoline and diesel emissions contributed to regional increases in annual mean surface PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters ⩽2.5 μm) concentrations by up to 17.5 and 13.7 µg m−3, and surface ozone (O3) concentrations by up to 7.1 and 7.2 ppbv, respectively, for 2000–2015. However, we also found substantial declines of surface PM2.5 and O3 concentrations over Europe, the US, Canada, and China for the same period, which suggested the co-benefits of air quality and human health from improving gasoline and diesel fuel quality and tightening vehicle emissions standards. Globally, we estimate the mean annual total PM2.5- and O3-induced premature deaths are 139 700–170 700 for gasoline and 205 200–309 300 for diesel, with the corresponding years of life lost of 2.74–3.47 and 4.56–6.52 million years, respectively. Diesel and gasoline emissions create health-effect disparities between the developed and developing countries, which are likely to aggravate afterwards.more » « less
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