The American Lung Association (ALA) has a new report out about the health benefits and health cost savings of the whole country transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs). The ALA partnered with ICF to produce the report. The report looks at all vehicles: trucks, buses, school buses, delivery vans, cars, and more.
The report found that transitioning to EVs would save 6300 lives in 2050, prevent 93,000 asthma attacks, and avoid 416,000 lost work days. The report also found that in 2050, that health benefits would be $72 billion and the climate benefits would be $113 billion.
Some of the communities that would benefit the most are those near highways, warehouses, and power plants. Due to our country’s environmental racism, these are most often communities of color.
Some of the health benefits come directly from cleaner air, as we transition to EVs there is less vehicle exhaust and reduced air pollution. Right now, 150 million Americans live in counties with unhealth levels of ozone or particulates. EVs produce zero exhaust as people drive them, and if the power source is clean renewable energy then air pollution and greenhouse gases (GHG) are reduced even more.
Other health benefits come from preventing some of the impacts of climate change that would happen under a “business-as-usual” (very few EVs) scenario. Climate change impacts many areas of health – increased heat, increased air pollution, droughts, floods, weather disasters, wildfires, food and agricultural insecurity, and much more. Greenhouse gases from producing and burning fossil fuels are causing climate change – transitioning to EVS powered by clean renewable energy would vastly reduce the impacts of climate change.
The ALA report also has a table of health benefits for each state, so you can look up the benefit where you live.
Obviously it will take major infrastructure support to transition to EVs, putting charging stations everywhere. But the health benefits, suffering avoided, and cost savings make it something we need to do.
It’s a very detailed report, you can read the full report here.
