Health Costs of Air Pollution from Traffic in U.S. Cities

The Public Health Costs of Traffic Congestion -A Health Risk Assessment (10 page pdf, Jonathan I. Levy, Jonathan J. Buonocore, & Katherine von Stackelberg, Harvard Center for Roisk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health, May 2011)

Also discussed here: Traffic emissions blamed in 2,200 deaths (USA Today, May 26, 2011)

And here: Traffic Pollution Responsible For 2,200 Deaths (redOrbit, May 27, 2011)

And here: Study: At Least 2,200 Premature Deaths from Traffic Congestion (Vox Civitatis, May 29, 2011)

And here: Illness Costs of Air Pollution (221 page pdf, Ontario Medical Association by DSS Management Consultants Inc., July 26, 2000)

The report reviewed today describes research on the impact of air pollution in 83 American cities, estimated as $31 B and 4,000 premature deaths and projects these impacts for 40 years into the future. It parallels the work done earlier by the Ontario Medical Association on Illness Costs of Air Pollution (or ICAP) which indicated about 5,940 premature deaths for Ontario in 2006, projected 20 years and $10 B/year in health costs.



Key Quotes:

“traffic congestion-related PM2.5, NOx and SO2 emissions in these 83 cities caused approximately 4,000 premature deaths in the year 2000, with a monetized value of approximately $31 billion (in 2007 dollars)”

"Our estimates of the total public health cost of traffic congestion in the U.S. are likely conservative, in that they consider only the impacts in 83 urban areas and only the cost of related mortality and not the costs that could be associated with related morbidity — health care, insurance, accidents and other factors,"

“The number of premature deaths and the public health care costs associated with congestion have been declining slightly for a decade…This reduction results from the continual turnover ... to lower emission vehicles and the increased use of cleaner fuels,"

“across the 83 urban areas modeled, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is projected to increase more than 30% from 2000 to 2030 (an increase from 2.97 billion daily VMT to 3.94 billion daily VMT), closely paralleling projected population growth in the urban areas of 32%”

“They forecast traffic congestion will rise more than 30 percent over the period 2000 to 2030 in 18 urban areas: Raleigh, North Carolina (54 percent); Oxnard, California (47 percent); Las Vegas, Nevada (46 percent)…”

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