Vog: Using Volcanic Eruptions to Estimate the Health Costs of Particulates

Abstract

The negative consequences of long-term exposure to particulate pollution are well established but a number of studies find no effect of short-term exposure on health outcomes. The high correlation of industrial pollutants complicates the estimation of the impact of individual pollutants on health. In this study, we use emissions from K ılauea volcano, which are uncorrelated with other pollution sources, to estimate the impact of pollutants on local emergency room admissions and a precise measure of costs. A one standard deviation increase in particulates leads to a 23-36% increase in expenditures on ER visits for pulmonary outcomes, mostly among the very young.In this article, we use volcanic emissions to document the effect of particulate pollution on hospital admissions and charges. Industrial and other types of anthropogenic pollution generally induce high correlation among various pollutants, possibly complicating the attribution of quantifiable effects to several different pollutants. Our pollution source, on the other hand, leads to relatively independent variation in pollutants. This variation allows us to more precisely measure the effect of particulate matter on various public health outcomes and costs in a context where pollution levels are well below Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ambient air quality standards. K ılauea is the most active of the five volcanoes that form the island of Hawai'i. Emissions from K ılauea produce what is known as 'vog' (volcanic smog) pollution. Vog is essentially small particulate matter (sulphate aerosols) suspended in the air, akin to smog pollution in many cities. Vog represents one of the truly exogenous sources of air pollution in the United States. Based on local weather conditions (and whether or not the volcano is emitting), air quality conditions in the state of Hawai'i can change from dark, polluted skies to near pristine conditions in a matter of hours.We adopt two main approaches to estimate the health impact of the pollution produced by K ılauea. Both use high frequency data on air quality and emergency room (ER) admissions and estimate linear models. The first method estimates a * Corresponding author: Timothy J. Halliday, University of Hawai'i at M anoa, UHERO and IZA,

Measuring SO2 Emission Rates at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii, Using an Array of Upward-Looking UV Spectrometers, 2014–2017

“…Changes in SO 2 release have heralded changes in vent location, eruptive character, and eruptive vigor (Elias and Sutton, 2002Patrick et al, 2016aPatrick et al, ,b, 2018. Local SO 2 impacts over the last 10 years have been significant: farmers and ranchers have received Federal disaster assistance due to financial losses (Patrick et al, 2013;Elias and Sutton, 2017), the cost of medical care for respiratory outcomes has risen (Halliday et al, 2018), and public access to iconic areas has been restricted due to SO 2 hazards (Elias and Sutton, 2017). In addition, local and regional atmospheric studies show that Kīlauea's contemporary degassing regime, though non-explosive, has the potential to impact climate and weather (Eguchi et al, 2011;Uno et al, 2013;Beirle et al, 2014).…”

Spatial and Temporal Variations in SO2 and PM2.5 Levels Around Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i During 2007–2018

“…Since initiation of intermittent fountaining activity at Kīlauea in 1983, SO 2 emissions have been a health concern among downwind communities on the Island of Hawai'i. As emissions from Kīlauea are dispersed downwind, communities are exposed to volcanic smog, locally known as vog, predominantly composed of SO 2 and fine particles of sulfuric acid aerosol (Longo, 2009;Longo et al, 2010;Halliday et al, 2015;Tam et al, 2016;Elias and Sutton, 2017). Prevailing trade winds from the north-east, particularly during the period from April to October, carry Kīlauea's emissions over the communities to the south and west (Longo et al, 2005(Longo et al, , 2008Michaud et al, 2007;Tam et al, 2016;Elias and Sutton, 2017) (Figure 1A).…”

Waiting for My Sentence: Air Pollution and the Productivity of Court Rulings

“…Rosales-Rueda and Triyana (2018) & Bharadwaj et al (2017) find that in-utero exposure affects long term health and sociodemographic outcomes. Halliday et al (2018) & Iskandar et al (2012 suggests that pollution increases hospitalization rates. Ostro et al (2001) points towards higher medicine intakes for asthmatic individuals and Moretti and Neidell (2011) show that air pollution increases the aggregate costs of health care services.…”