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We investigate the effect of pollution on worker productivity in the service sector by focusing on two call centers in China. Using precise measures of each worker's daily output linked to daily measures of pollution and meteorology, we find that higher levels of air pollution decrease worker productivity. These results manifest themselves at levels of pollution commonly found in large cities throughout the developing and developed world.

Published Jan 1, 2019

Chang, T. Y., Zivin, J. G., Gross, T., & Neidell, M. (2019). The effect of pollution on worker productivity: Evidence from call center workers in China. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(1), 151–172. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20160436

Air pollution poses a great environmental risk to health. Outdoor fine particulate matter (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter 103 million disability-adjusted life years lost according to the Global Burden of Disease Report. The World Health Organization attributes 3.8 million additional deaths to indoor air pollution. Air pollution can harm acutely, usually manifested by respiratory or cardiac symptoms, as well as chronically, potentially affecting every organ in the body. It can cause, complicate, or exacerbate many adverse health conditions. Tissue damage may result directly from pollutant toxicity because fine and ultrafine particles can gain access to organs, or indirectly through systemic inflammatory processes. Susceptibility is partly under genetic and epigenetic regulation. Although air pollution affects people of all regions, ages, and social groups, it is likely to cause greater illness in those with heavy exposure and greater susceptibility. Persons are more vulnerable to air pollution if they have other illnesses or less social support. Harmful effects occur on a continuum of dosage and even at levels below air quality standards previously considered to be safe.

Published Jan 1, 2019

Schraufnagel, D. E., Balmes, J. R., Cowl, C. T., De Matteis, S., Jung, S. H., Mortimer, K., Perez-Padilla, R., Rice, M. B., Riojas-Rodriguez, H., Sood, A., Thurston, G. D., To, T., Vanker, A., & Wuebbles, D. J. (2019). Air Pollution and Noncommunicable Diseases: A Review by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies’ Environmental Committee, Part 1: The Damaging Effects of Air Pollution. Chest, 155(2), 409–416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2018.10.042

The transportation sector is now the leading emitter of greenhouse gases ("GHGs") in the United States, emitting more GHGs than the power sector. In order to reach greenhouse gas emission reduction goals to mitigate the effects of climate change, transit authorities must transition to zero-emission vehicle ('"EV") bus fleets. The average life span of a diesel bus is twelve years; therefore, it is imperative that transit authorities act quickly and stop buying additional diesel buses. However, one significant barrier to shifting to ZEVs is the upfront cost. Although electric buses have or will soon reach cost parity with their diesel counterparts over time, they are more expensive to purchase. Currently, many states are using limited federal funding and the VW Settlement Fund, but those are finite resources that are already spread too thin. This Note argues that transit authorities should consider a Pay-As- You Save ("PAYS") financing structure to cover the initial increased cost. Through PAYS, electric companies bear the additional upfront cost in pur- chasing electric buses and charge the transit authorities a fixed tariff on their electric bill. Utilities supply the additional electricity to power the buses and PAYS will allow transit authorities to leverage the limited public funds, so they can buy more electric buses. This will allow them to transition to a zero- emission fleet faster. This Note examines the VW Consent Decree, a selection of state VW Mitigation Beneficiary Plans, as well as the Low-No Emissions federal grant, none of which pose a legal barrier for leveraging VW funds through PAYS. Although there is additional coordination to set up PAYS and there is more administration than simply using federal grants or VWfunding, PAYS financing will allow transit authorities to scale their bus electrification while we are run- ning out of time to prevent meaningful effects of climate change.

Published Jan 1, 2019

Strauss, R. (2019). Electric Buses and Clean Energy Financing: How Transit Authorities Can Leverage State and Federal Funds to Buy More Zero-Emission Buses. Georgetown Environmental Law Review, 32. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/gintenlr32&div=10&id=&page=

Walking School Buses (WSBs), organized groups for children to walk to school under the supervision of adults, help reduce traffic congestion and contribute towards exercise. Routes are based largely on need, traffic safety and travel time, with exposure to air pollution not generally considered. This paper explores whether reductions in exposure can be achieved based on the side of the road travelled using data collected in Auckland, New Zealand. Exposure to air pollution was measured for a 25-min commute consisting of a 10-min segment along a quiet cul-de-sac and a 15-min segment along a main arterial road with traffic congestion heavier in one direction. Two participants were each equipped with a portable P-Trak ultrafine particle monitor and a portable Langan carbon monoxide monitor, and walked the route on opposite sides of the road simultaneously, for both morning and afternoon, logging 10-s data. The results suggest that pedestrians travelling on the footpath next to the less congested side of the road in the morning avoid many short-term peaks in concentration and experience significantly lower mean exposures than those travelling on the footpath next to the more congested side. Significant reductions in air pollution exposure could be made for children by taking into account the side of the road in WSB route design.

Published Dec 6, 2018

Dirks, K., Salmond, J., & Talbot, N. (2018). Air Pollution Exposure in Walking School Bus Routes: A New Zealand Case Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(12), 2802. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122802

Environmental burdens such as air pollution are inequitably distributed with groups of lower socioeconomic statuses, which tend to comprise of large proportions of racial minorities, typically bearing greater exposure. Such groups have also been shown to present more severe health outcomes which can be related to adverse pollution exposure. Air pollution exposure, especially in urban areas, is usually impacted by the built environment, such as major roadways, which can be a significant source of air pollution. This study aims to examine inequities in prevalence of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in the Atlanta metropolitan region as they relate to exposure to air pollution and characteristics of the built environment. Census tract level data were obtained from multiple sources to model health outcomes (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke), pollution exposure (particulate matter and nitrogen oxides), demographics (ethnicity and proportion of elderly residents), and infrastructure characteristics (tree canopy cover, access to green space, and road intersection density). Conditional autoregressive models were fit to the data to account for spatial autocorrelation among census tracts. The statistical model showed areas with majority African-American populations had significantly higher exposure to both air pollutants and higher prevalence of each disease. When considering univariate associations between pollution and health outcomes, the only significant association existed between nitrogen oxides and COPD being negatively correlated. Greater percent tree canopy cover and green space access were associated with higher prevalence of COPD, CHD, and stroke. Overall, in considering health outcomes in connection with pollution exposure infrastructure and ethnic demographics, demographics remained the most significant explanatory variable.

Published Nov 26, 2018

Servadio, J. L., Lawal, A. S., Davis, T., Bates, J., Russell, A. G., Ramaswami, A., Convertino, M., & Botchwey, N. (2019). Demographic Inequities in Health Outcomes and Air Pollution Exposure in the Atlanta Area and its Relationship to Urban Infrastructure. Journal of Urban Health, 96(2), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-018-0318-7

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic respiratory disease worldwide, affecting 358 million people in 2015. Ambient air pollution exacerbates asthma among populations around the world and may also contribute to new-onset asthma.

Published Oct 24, 2018

Anenberg, S. C., Henze, D. K., Tinney, V., Kinney, P. L., Raich, W., Fann, N., Malley, C. S., Roman, H., Lamsal, L., Duncan, B., Martin, R. V., van Donkelaar, A., Brauer, M., Doherty, R., Jonson, J. E., Davila, Y., Sudo, K., & Kuylenstierna, J. C. I. (2018). Estimates of the Global Burden of Ambient, Ozone, and Asthma Incidence on Emergency Room Visits. Environmental Health Perspectives, 126(10), 107004. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3766

Race and ethnicity are consequential constructs when it comes to exposure to air pollution. Persistent environmental racial/ethnic inequalities call for attention to identifying the factors that maintain them. We examined associations between racial residential segregation and racial/ethnic inequalities in exposure to three types of air pollutants. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1990–2011), the U.S. Census (1990–2010), and the Environmental Protection Agency, we tested the independent and joint contributions of race/ethnicity and metropolitan-level residential segregation on individual levels of exposure to air pollution nationwide. We found that racial and ethnic minorities were exposed to significantly higher levels of air pollution compared to Whites. The difference between minorities and Whites in exposure to all three types of air pollution was most pronounced in metropolitan areas with high levels of residential segregation. The environmental inequities observed in this study call for public health and policy initiatives to ameliorate the sources of racial/ethnic gaps in pollution exposure. Given the links between the physical environment and health, addressing such uneven environmental burdens may be a promising way to improve population health and decrease racial/ethnic inequalities therein.

Published Oct 15, 2018

Woo, B., Kravitz-Wirtz, N., Sass, V., Crowder, K., Teixeira, S., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2019). Residential Segregation and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Ambient Air Pollution. Race and Social Problems, 11(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-018-9254-0

Outlines the scope of air pollution's effect on physical activity.

Published Sep 20, 2018

Aguilera, J., Jeon, S., Chavez, M., Whigham, ; Leah, & Li, W.-W. (2018). Moderate to vigorous physical activity levels negatively correlate with traffic related air pollutants in children with asthma attending a school near a freeway.

Open burning of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) has a large impact in regional atmospheric pollution and global climatic change. In this research, pollutant emissions from sugarcane residues burning were measured in order to determine the emission factors (EFs) of elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), 18 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), K, Na, Ca, Mg, NO3−, SO42−, NH4+, and Cl− contained in particulate matter (PM), as well as EFs of the gaseous pollutants, carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4) and 37 volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Experiments were carried out in an open combustion chamber equipped with isokinetic sampling, following EPA 5 and modified EPA 201-A methods. Preliminary tests showed that continuous feeding of residues does not represent the open burning carried out in the field since flaming stage is sustained, thus batch feeding of residues was used to perform around 30 experiments. Gaseous pollutants EFs were 1618 ± 108, 25.7 ± 2.04 and 2.29 ± 0.13 g kg−1 for CO2, CO and CH4 respectively, while C2 compounds have the highest EF of VOCs. PM10 and PM2.5 accounted for 55% and 36% of total PM mass, whereas carbonaceous species (EC and OC) accounted for 66% in PM2.5 and 58% in PM10 and total PM mass. Emission factors of EC varied from 0.34 to 0.37 g kg−1, and EF of OC were 0.44, 0.67 and 1.2 g kg−1 for PM2.5, PM10 and total PM, respectively. Highest EFs of determined elements and anions were K and Cl−, respectively. Heavy PAHs such as benzo[b]fluoranthene, bezo[k]fluranthene and benzo[a]pyrene presented the greatest EFs with 0.265 ± 0.04, 0.264 ± 0.08 and 0.254 ± 0.015 mg kg−1 respectively. Kruskal Wallis tests indicated that EFs had no significant differences among sugarcane varieties harvested in sites with different altitudes and climate, thus they can be applied for inventories estimations in world regions similar to Mexico, as well as in air quality forecasting models and climatic model allowing a better knowledge of air pollution and climatic change scenarios. The results of this research can be the base to design and establish public policies in order to regulate and eventually eliminate the practices of pre-harvest and post-harvest sugarcane burning.

Published Sep 13, 2018

Mugica-Álvarez, V., Hernández-Rosas, F., Magaña-Reyes, M., Herrera-Murillo, J., Santiago-De La Rosa, N., Gutiérrez-Arzaluz, M., de Jesús Figueroa-Lara, J., & González-Cardoso, G. (2018). Sugarcane burning emissions: Characterization and emission factors. Atmospheric Environment, 193, 262–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.09.013

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that air pollution particulate matter (PM) and adsorbed toxicants (organic compounds and trace metals) may affect child development already in utero. Recent studies have also indicated that PM may be a risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). A pattern of increasing prevalence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been suggested to partly be linked to environmental pollutants exposure, including PM. Epidemiological studies suggest associations between pre- or postnatal exposure to air pollution components and ADHD symptoms. However, many studies are cross-sectional without possibility to reveal causality. Cohort studies are often small with poor exposure characterization, and confounded by traffic noise and socioeconomic factors, possibly overestimating the study associations. Furthermore, the mechanistic knowledge how exposure to PM during early brain development may contribute to increased risk of ADHD symptoms or cognitive deficits is limited. The closure of this knowledge gap requires the combined use of well-designed longitudinal cohort studies, supported by mechanistic in vitro studies. As ADHD has profound consequences for the children affected and their families, the identification of preventable risk factors such as air pollution exposure should be of high priority.

Published Sep 1, 2018

Myhre, Oddvar, et al. “Early Life Exposure to Air Pollution Particulate Matter (PM) as Risk Factor for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Need for Novel Strategies for Mechanisms and Causalities.” Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, vol. 354, 2018, pp. 196–214., doi:10.1016/j.taap.2018.03.015.