TY - JOUR

T1 - Intercontinental impacts of ozone pollution on human mortality.

AU - Casper-Anenberg, Susan

AU - West, J.Jason

AU - Fiore, Arlene M.

AU - Jaffe, Daniel A.

AU - Prather, Michael J.

AU - Bergmann, Daniel

AU - Cuvelier, Kees

AU - Dentener, Frank J.

AU - Duncan, Bryan N.

AU - Gauss, Michael

AU - Hess, Peter

AU - Jonson, Jan Eiof

AU - Lupu, Alexandru

AU - MacKenzie, Ian A.

AU - Marmer, Elina

AU - Park, Rokjin J.

AU - Sanderson, Michael G.

AU - Schultz, Martin

AU - Shindell, Drew T.

AU - Szopa, Sophie

AU - Vivanco, Marta G.

AU - Wild, Oliver

AU - Zeng, Guang

PY - 2009/9/1

Y1 - 2009/9/1

N2 - Ozone exposure is associated with negative health impacts, including premature mortality. Observations and modeling studies demonstrate that emissions from one continent influence ozone air quality over other continents. We estimate the premature mortalities avoided from surface ozone decreases obtained via combined 20% reductions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide, non-methane volatile organic compound, and carbon monoxide emissions in North America (NA), East Asia (EA), South Asia (SA), and Europe (EU). We use estimates of ozone responses to these emission changes from several atmospheric chemical transport models combined with a health impact function. Foreign emission reductions contribute approximately 30%, 30%, 20%, and >50% of the mortalities avoided by reducing precursor emissions in all regions together in NA, EA, SA, and EU, respectively. Reducing emissions in NA and EU avoids more mortalities outside the source region than within, owing in part to larger populations in foreign regions. Lowering the global methane abundance by 20% reduces mortality most in SA, followed by EU, EA, and NA. For some source−receptor pairs, there is greater uncertainty in our estimated avoided mortalities associated with the modeled ozone responses to emission changes than with the health impact function parameters.

AB - Ozone exposure is associated with negative health impacts, including premature mortality. Observations and modeling studies demonstrate that emissions from one continent influence ozone air quality over other continents. We estimate the premature mortalities avoided from surface ozone decreases obtained via combined 20% reductions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide, non-methane volatile organic compound, and carbon monoxide emissions in North America (NA), East Asia (EA), South Asia (SA), and Europe (EU). We use estimates of ozone responses to these emission changes from several atmospheric chemical transport models combined with a health impact function. Foreign emission reductions contribute approximately 30%, 30%, 20%, and >50% of the mortalities avoided by reducing precursor emissions in all regions together in NA, EA, SA, and EU, respectively. Reducing emissions in NA and EU avoids more mortalities outside the source region than within, owing in part to larger populations in foreign regions. Lowering the global methane abundance by 20% reduces mortality most in SA, followed by EU, EA, and NA. For some source−receptor pairs, there is greater uncertainty in our estimated avoided mortalities associated with the modeled ozone responses to emission changes than with the health impact function parameters.

U2 - 10.1021/es900518z

DO - 10.1021/es900518z

M3 - Journal article

VL - 43

SP - 6482

EP - 6487

JO - Environmental Science and Technology

JF - Environmental Science and Technology

SN - 0013-936X

IS - 17

ER -