<
https://electrek.co/2023/02/10/surprise-electric-cars-are-already-making-california-healthier/>
"From the “duh” department, California is already becoming more healthy because
of electric car penetration, which has resulted in cleaner air in areas where
electric cars are more prevalent, according to a new study.
The study was published last week by the Keck School of Medicine at the
University of Southern California. It tracked real-world pollution levels,
electric car penetration, and emergency room visits across California between
2013 and 2019, and controlled against overall improvements in California air
quality during the study period.
Completely unsurprisingly, the study found that clean air vehicles actually
resulted in clean air, with the benefits being stronger in areas where there
were more of them. Amazing. Who knew.
Each increase of 20 cars per 1,000 people (which is roughly equivalent to 2% of
cars – since CA has 840 cars per 1,000 people) was associated with a .41ppb
(parts per billion) drop in nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.
California law sets average NOx standards at 30ppb, so a drop of .41 is a
pretty big chunk, especially when compared to just 2% of EV penetration.
It stands to reason that taking gas cars off the road would reduce NOx, because
nitrogen dioxide is a form of pollution particularly associated with vehicle
tailpipes, and is the major contributor to the formation of smog, with a
variety of negative health effects.
For one example, worldwide, vehicle traffic specifically is responsible for 4
million new cases of childhood asthma per year. And air pollution is
responsible for 100,000-200,000 deaths in the US per year, the largest chunk of
which is caused by vehicle pollution.
And so the study checked to see if areas with higher EV peneration, and lower
NOx, would also have fewer problems with asthma, and
whaddayaknow, they did!
Every 20 electric cars per 1,000 Californians in a particular zip code was
associated with a 3.2% decline in asthma-related emergency department visits."
Via
Future Crunch:
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-human-rights-spain/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
