Local pollutants go global: The impacts of intercontinental air pollution from China on air quality and morbidity in California

Ngo, Nicole S.; Bao, Xiaojia; Zhong, Nan

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2018.04.027

Cited by 16 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In more recent studies, Yang et al [53] found that all pollutants were positively correlated with prehypertension in northeast China in 2009, Vlaandern et al [47] found that short-term exposure to air pollution interfered with blood metabolism, Shen et al [40] found that the current AQI system was unable to accurately estimate the air pollution health risks, and Zhao et al [56] found that of the 307 cyclists interviewed in Beijing in 2015 on heavily polluted days, most were low-income males over 30 years old or short-distance travelers. In related research, Ngo et al [33] found that sandstorms were associated with per capita acute respiratory diseases, Torres et al [46] found that sulfur dioxide and fine particles increased cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, Huang et al [20] found that family income and education were negatively correlated with ambient air quality in Beijing in 2014, and Lua et al [30] estimated that in 2017, 3800 out of 124,800 deaths in Hainan were due to PM 2.5 exposure.…”

Section: Impact Of Air Pollution On Human Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has been significant research into the relationships between economic development, energy, and environmental pollution [ 17 , 27 , 48 , 49 , 52 ]), with some specifically focusing on energy and air pollution factors ([ 1 , 8 , 9 , 12 , 13 , 18 , 19 , 26 , 37 , 48 , 49 , 54 , 55 ]). The relationships between air pollution, health, and especially children’s health have also been major research foci [ 14 , 16 , 20 , 21 , 25 , 31 , 33 , 36 , 40 , 46 , 47 , 51 , 53 , 56 ] and [ 6 , 7 , 15 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 30 , 34 , 38 , 39 ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Dynamic linkages among economic development, environmental pollution and human health in Chinese

Liu

Lin

Chiu

2020

Cost Eff Resour Alloc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Research on the relationships between economic development, energy consumption, environmental pollution, and human health has tended to focus on the relationships between economic growth and air pollution, energy and air pollution, or the impact of air pollution on human health. However, there has been little past research focused on all the above associations. Methods The few studies that have examined the interconnections between the economy, energy consumption, environmental pollution and health have tended to employ regression analyses, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis), or DEA efficiency analyses; however, as these are static analysis tools, the analyses did not fully reveal the sustainable economic, energy, environmental or health developments over time, did not consider the regional differences, and most often ignored community health factors. To go some way to filling this gap, this paper developed a modified two stage Undesirable Meta Dynamic Network model to jointly analyze energy consumption, economic growth, air pollution and health treatment data in 31 Chinese high-income and upper-middle income cities from 2013–2016, for which the overall efficiency, production efficiency, healthcare resource utilization efficiency and technology gap ratio (TGR) for all input and output variables were calculated. Results It was found that: (1) the annual average overall efficiency in China’s eastern region was the highest; (2) the production stage efficiencies were higher than the healthcare resource utilization stage efficiencies in most cities; (3) the high-income cities had lower TGRs than the upper–middle income cities; (4) the high-income cities had higher average energy consumption efficiencies than the upper-middle income cities; (5) the health expenditure efficiencies were the lowest of all inputs; (6) the high-income cities’ respiratory disease and mortality rate efficiencies were higher than in the upper–middle income cities, which had improving mortality rate efficiencies; and (7) there were significant regional differences in the annual average input and output indicator efficiencies. Conclusions First, the high-income cities had higher average efficiencies than the upper-middle income cities. Of the ten eastern region high-income cities, Guangzhou and Shanghai had average efficiencies of 1, with the least efficient being Shijiazhuang. In the other regions, the upper-middle income cities required greater technology and health treatment investments. Second, Guangzhou, Lhasa, Nanning, and Shanghai had production efficiencies of 1, and Guangzhou, Lhasa, Nanning, Shanghai and Fuzhou had healthcare resource utilization efficiencies of 1. As the average production stage efficiencies in most cities were higher than the healthcare resource utilization stage efficiencies, greater efforts are needed to improve the healthcare resource utilization. Third, the technology gap ratios (TGRs) in the high-income cities were slightly higher than in the upper-middle income cities. Therefore, the upper-middle income cities need to learn from the high-income cities to improve their general health treatment TGRs. Fourth, while the high-income cities had higher energy consumption efficiencies than the upper-middle income cities, these were decreasing in most cities. There were few respiratory disease efficiency differences between the high-income and upper-middle income cities, the high-income cities had falling mortality rate efficiencies, and the upper-middle income cities had increasing mortality rate efficiencies. Overall, therefore, most cities needed to strengthen their health governance to balance economic growth and urban expansion. Fifth, the average AQI efficiencies in both the high-income and upper-middle income cities were higher than the average CO2 efficiencies. However, the high-income cities had lower average CO2 emissions and AQI efficiencies than the upper-middle income cities, with the AQI efficiency differences between the two city groups expanding. As most cities were focusing more on air pollution controls than carbon dioxide emissions, greater efforts were needed in coordinating the air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions treatments. Therefore, the following suggestions are given. (1) The government should reform the hospital and medical systems. (2) Local governments need to strengthen their air pollution and disease education. (3) High-income cities need to improve their healthcare governance to reduce the incidence of respiratory diseases and the associated mortality. (4) Healthcare governance efficiency needs to be prioritized in 17 upper-middle income cities, such as Hangzhou, Changchun, Harbin, Chengdu, Guiyang, Kunming and Xi’an, by establishing sound medical management systems and emergency environmental pollution treatments, and by increasing capital asset medical investments. (5) Upper-middle income cities need to adapt their treatment controls to local conditions and design medium to long-term development strategies. (6) Upper-middle income cities need to actively learn from the technological and governance experiences in the more efficient higher-income cities.

show abstract

Section: Impact Of Air Pollution On Human Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic linkages among economic development, environmental pollution and human health in Chinese

Liu

Lin

Chiu

2020

Cost Eff Resour Alloc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ljungmau et al [59] used linear regression to analyze the relationship between long-term and short-term air pollution exposure and arterial stiffness, and their results showed that long-term exposure to PM 2.5 is not associated with arterial stiffness. Ngo et al [60] employed hospitalization and emergency department data to analyze the incidences of patients with respiratory diseases and heart disease in California between 2005 and 2012. Heavy exposure to sandstorms is associated with an increase in human acute respiratory illness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Energy Efficiency and the Impact of Air Pollution on Health in China

Chiu

Chang

et al. 2020

Healthcare

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The rapid growth of China's economy in recent years has greatly improved its citizens' living standards, but economic growth consumes many various energy sources as well as produces harmful air pollution. Nitrogen oxides, SO 2 (sulfur dioxide), and other polluting gases are damaging the environment and people's health, with a particular spike in incidences of many air pollution-related diseases in recent years. While there have been many documents discussing China's energy and environmental issues in the past, few of them analyze economic development, air pollution, and residents' health together. Therefore, this study uses the modified undesirable dynamic two-stage DEA (data envelopment analysis) model to explore the economic, environmental, and health efficiencies of 30 provinces in China. The empirical results show the following: (1) Most provinces have lower efficiency values in the health stage than in the production stage. (2) Among the provinces with annual efficiency values below 1, their energy consumption, CO 2 (carbon dioxide), and NOx (nitrogen oxide) efficiency values have mostly declined from 2013 to 2016, while their SO 2 efficiency values have increased (less SO 2 emissions). (3) The growth rate of SO 2 efficiency in 2016 for 10 provinces is much higher than in previous years. (4) The health expenditure efficiencies of most provinces are at a lower level and show room for improvement. (5) In most provinces, the mortality rate is higher, but on a decreasing trend. (6) Finally, as representative for a typical respiratory infection, most provinces have a high level of tuberculosis efficiency, indicating that most areas of China are highly effective at respiratory disease governance.With the largest coal demand in the world, the China government attaches great importance to the prevention and treatment of air pollution. The World Energy Outlook 2017 China Special Report [3] showed that China will continue in its efforts to intensify energy technology innovation, improve the clean and efficient use of fossil energy, accelerate the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient modern energy system, and strive to fulfill its responsibilities and obligations. "The Action Plan for the Comprehensive Management of Air Pollution in the Autumn and Winter of 2019-2020 in the Yangtze River Delta Region" [4] presents the regulation of air pollution in 41 cities at the prefecture level and above in this region for adjusting the industrial structure of heavily polluting industries. Many past research studies have focused on the efficiency of production, energy, environment, treatment and undesirable output analyses, such as . In addition to energy and environmental efficiency analyses, some scholars have explored the effects of exposure to air pollution on human health, such as [42][43][44][45][46][47].Past related literature is generally based on static analysis, lacking time considerations and mostly focusing on energy and environmental topics. Moreover, very few studies have jointly investigated econo...

show abstract

“…The effects of pollutants on human health have widely appeared in the literature, especially the relationship between air pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, dust, nitrogen oxides, PM10 and PM2.5, and respiratory disease [22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]. PM 2.5 denotes PM2.5 particles, which are air pollutants with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy and Health Efficiencies in China with the Inclusion of Technological Innovation

Wang

Chang

2019

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The price people pay for low energy efficiency includes not only high manufacturing costs, but also public health. With technological innovation as the driving factor for improving energy efficiency, this study uses two-stage dynamic undesirable data envelopment analysis (TDU-DEA) under variable return to scale to evaluate energy and health efficiencies with inclusion of technological innovation in 30 provinces of China over the period 2013–2016. The results show that the mean overall efficiencies and ranks in the eastern region are significantly higher than those in the non-eastern region, with or without the inclusion of technological innovations, and that energy efficiency in most provinces is higher than health efficiency. The average technological innovation efficiencies for energy conservation are higher than those for respiratory medical treatment. The former gap between the eastern region and non-east region is also smaller than the latter. Lastly, regions with the best technological innovation efficiencies are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Tianjin, Xinjiang, and Yunnan.

show abstract

Local pollutants go global: The impacts of intercontinental air pollution from China on air quality and morbidity in California

Cited by 16 publications

References 20 publications

Dynamic linkages among economic development, environmental pollution and human health in Chinese

Dynamic linkages among economic development, environmental pollution and human health in Chinese

The Energy Efficiency and the Impact of Air Pollution on Health in China

Energy and Health Efficiencies in China with the Inclusion of Technological Innovation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About