Given all that we know about the close link between air pollution and health, it makes sense that replacing fossil-fuel vehicles with zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) would improve health outcomes. We now have the first real-world data showing that. A six-year, zip-code-by-zip-code study in California found that as the percentage of ZEVs rose, the number of asthma-related emergency room visits fell. Air pollution as reflected by nitrogen oxide (NO2) levels, one of many pollutants emitted by gas- and diesel-fueled vehicles, was the likely link.
As reported in the 1 April, 2023 edition of Science of the Total Environment, researchers at the University of Southern California analyzed data from 1238 California zip codes from 2013 through 2019, during which the percentage of ZEVs on the road increased by a factor of 10. They found a statistically significant inverse relationship between ZEVS and asthma-related ER visits - for every increase of 20 ZEVs per 1000 people, NO2 levels were reduced by 0.41 parts per billion and ER visits fell by 3.2 percent.
That's not merely significant statistically - in real-world terms it means that thousands of people who would have had pollution-provoked breathing problems severe enough to force a trip to the ER could simply go about their normal activities.
It's important to note that asthma is just one of many serious health problems caused by air pollution including heart disease, stroke and cancer. Just as this study used NO2 as a proxy for all the pollutants and particulates emitted by fossil-fuel powered vehicles, asthma served as a proxy for a panoply of pollution-linked illnesses.
Erika Garcia, the study's lead author, emphasizes the importance of being able to add such local, real-life impacts to the climate-change narrative. "The idea that changes being made at the local level can improve the health of your own community could be a powerful message to the public and to policy makers," she says.
Garcia and her colleagues also found, not surprisingly, that the uptake in ZEVs was far higher in zip codes with better educated and higher income populations. When we contrast that with the well-documented fact that pollution levels are higher in less educated and poorer communities, and in communities of color, it becomes clear that cleaner technologies are only part of the answer; inequity also must be addressed. "Should continuing research support our findings," Garcia says, "we want to make sure that those communities that are overburdened with the traffic-related air pollution are truly benefiting from this climate mitigation effort."
Still, with close to a million electric vehicles in California alone, and the EV market share rising rapidly worldwide, this first proof that ZEVs and other pollution-reducing steps can protect our health along with the climate and the environment truly is a breath of fresh air.
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