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Relevance of organic compounds in air for public health in the United States
Citation:
Pye, H. Relevance of organic compounds in air for public health in the United States. Frontiers in Atmospheric Chemistry Seminar Series, virtual, Virtual, April 09, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
Ozone and fine particle (PM2.5) air pollution results in premature death. We find the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) component of PM2.5 is strongly associated with mortality independent of total PM2.5 mass, and spatial variability in SOA across the U.S. is associated with a larger increase in cardiorespiratory mortality rates than total PM2.5. We show that anthropogenic VOC emission reductions are more than twice as effective as equivalent fractional reductions of SOX or NOX at reducing air pollution-associated cardiorespiratory mortality in the United States.
Description:
Ozone and fine particle (PM2.5) air pollution results in premature death. These pollutants are predominantly secondary in nature and can form from nitrogen oxides (NOX), sulfur oxides (SOX), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Health benefit calculations for emission reduction scenarios often neglect VOC precursors as well as the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) component of PM2.5. In this work, PM2.5 constituent concentrations from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system were used along with county-level data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to examine the relationship between PM2.5 components and cardiorespiratory disease deaths. We find SOA is strongly associated with mortality independent of total PM2.5 mass, and spatial variability in SOA across the U.S. is associated with a larger increase in cardiorespiratory mortality rates than total PM2.5. We show that anthropogenic VOC emission reductions are more than twice as effective as equivalent fractional reductions of SOX or NOX at reducing air pollution-associated cardiorespiratory mortality in the United States. Most (85%) of the VOC-reduction benefits result from reduced SOA with the remainder from ozone. We also examine sources of VOCs in the U.S. and estimate updated emissions for the volatile chemical product sector. Future pollution control efforts could achieve greater health benefits by considering VOC emissions and their implications for SOA.