In addition to helping to mitigate the effects of global warming, which is already affecting the planet, electric cars can also improve lung health residents of big cities.
A team of researchers from the USC Keck School of Medicine documented this. reduction of air pollution caused by the use of electric vehicles This can improve people’s health.
Scientists have begun documenting the real impact of electric vehicle adoption in the first study to use real data to link electric vehicles, air pollution and health. For this analyzed the “natural experiment” that took place in California, when the inhabitants of the state quickly switched to electric carsor Zero Emissions Vehicles (ZEV).
The team compared data on total ZEV registrations, air pollution levels and emergency room visits associated with asthma statewide between 2013 and 2019. As ZEV adoption increased within a given zip code, local air pollution levels and EMS visits decreased.
To explore the impact of electric vehicle adoption, the research team analyzed and compared four different datasets. First of all, received data on ZEV (including battery-electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and tabulated the total number of vehicles registered in each zip code for each year between 2013 and 2019.
They also received data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air monitoring facilities levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a traffic-related air pollutant, and asthma-related emergency room visits at the zip code level. He Asthma is one of the longstanding health problems associated with pollutants atmospheric substances such as NO2, which can also cause and exacerbate other respiratory diseases, as well as problems with the heart, brain and other organic systems.
Finally, the researchers calculated percentage of adults in each zip code with a college degree. The level of education is often used as an indicator of the socio-economic status of an area.
results
At the postcode level, for every additional 20 ZEV per 1,000 people, there were There was a 3.2% decrease in emergency room visits for asthma. and small expected decline in levels NO2. The average for all zip codes in the state, ZEVs increased from 1.4 to 14.6 per 1,000 people between 2013 and 2019.
ZEV acceptance was significantly lower in ZIP codes with lower levels of education.. For example, a postal code with 17% of the population with a bachelor’s degree had an average annual increase of 0.70 ZEV per 1,000 people compared to an annual increase of 3.6 ZEV per 1,000 people for a postal code with 47% of the population. population with a bachelor’s degree.
As one of the first studies to quantify the environmental and health benefits of low-emission electric vehicles in the real world, the authors believe iResearch can help demonstrate the power of this mitigation measureincluding possible reduction in use and health care costs.
40% of U.S. zero-emission vehicle sales in 2022 were in California.
Source: La Opinion
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