A climate change initiative in the US Northeast designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has also significantly reduced harmful air pollution and related health effects on children, such as asthma, premature births and low birth weights, according to with a new study.
Led by researchers from the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the study found that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative reduced fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and, because of this reduction, the region avoided an estimated 537 cases of childhood asthma, 112 premature births, 98 cases of autism spectrum disorder and 56 cases of low birth weight from 2009 to 2014.
By avoiding such effects on children's health, researchers estimate an economic savings of between $191 million and $350 million.
“At the same time, toxic air pollutants are released [carbon dioxide]lead author Frederica Perera, professor of environmental health sciences at the Columbia Mailman School and director of translational research at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, told EHN. “Due to biological vulnerability, developing fetuses and young children are disproportionately affected by air pollution and climate change.”
PM2.5 consists of toxic particulate matter much smaller than the width of a human hair and is linked to a variety of health effects, including respiratory and heart problems, effects on birth and impaired brain development for children.
Microscopic pollution can be made up of many different particles, but in this study published today in Environmental Health Perspectives— The researchers looked at reductions in nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, which, once emitted by power plants, react in the atmosphere to form PM2.5.
Estimates of health benefits and cost savings are probably conservative: PM2.5 atmospheric particles make up the majority of particulate pollution from power plants, however, there is also some emitted directly by factories, which the researchers did not took into account. Nor did they look at other toxic substances such as ozone or nitrogen dioxide.
The calculated economic benefits also do not take into account the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“These cost estimates are certainly underestimates, as they do not include the long-term lifetime costs of these disorders or impairments,” Perera said.
“Premature births, for example, increase the risk for respiratory disease in adulthood and for cognitive effects such as reduced IQ, so we can consider these conservative estimates,” he added.
Double benefit
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was established in 2005 and is the first of its kind in the US.
It's an effort between Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey (which left mimicry in 2012 but returned in 2020), New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont— with each state expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity sector by 45% below 2005 levels by 2020 and a further 30% by 2030.
It does this largely by setting limits on carbon dioxide from new and existing fossil-fueled power plants with a minimum capacity of 25 megawatts—those plants must offset their emissions by buying allowances (for every small ton, 2,000 pounds, of carbon dioxide of carbon emitted ) that are reinvested in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
It has been successful: in 2017 the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative reported that states had already reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50 percent since 2005.
As a side benefit of the initiative, levels of PM2.5, carbon monoxide, lead, ground-level ozone, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide have been reduced.
In the new study, the researchers used a tool from the US Environmental Protection Agency that estimates air pollution-related illnesses and deaths and assigns an economic value. They looked at climate initiative states as well as neighboring states (Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia). reductions, and then estimated reduced rates of disease and disorder.
The authors noted that “more densely populated areas are expected to have higher benefits because there is a larger population at risk (more pregnant women and children) breathing cleaner air.”
“This is likely to occur in densely populated counties in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey,” they wrote.
This is not the first analysis to identify health benefits in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative—in 2017, Appreciated by Abt Associates that the total value of health benefits from the initiative from 2009 to 2014 was between $3 billion and $8.3 billion, with an estimated 300 to 830 premature adult deaths averted.
A “good news” story
The new study had limitations – the link between PM2.5 and autism, though possible given previous research, has not been proven. There is strong evidence that PM2.5 negatively affects children's IQ, but the new review did not consider the “potentially large benefit” of the climate initiative in improving children's IQ.
Perera said they also weren't able to track health benefits by race or income level, as more precise neighborhood-level data would be needed. “We know that these pollutants are major contributors to inequality worldwide, disproportionately affecting places where poverty and environmental injustice compound the effect,” Perera said.
However, he said this is good news.
“We hope the results will prompt policymakers when designing these policies to consider the health benefits for children and how to maximize them,” he said.
