Lulu Chen1,2, Jintai Lin1*, Randall Martin2,3,4, Mingxi Du6, Hongjian Weng1, Hao Kong1, Ruijing Ni1, Jun Meng3, Yuhang Zhang1, Lijuan Zhang5, Aaron van Donkelaar2,3
1Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmospheric Studies, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Mckelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
3Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS B3H 4R2, Canada
4Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
5Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory, Shanghai 200030, China
6School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
*Correspondence to: Jintai Lin (E-mail: linjt@pku.edu.cn)
Abstract:
Atmospheric transport of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the leading environmental risk factor for public health, is estimated to exert substantial transboundary effects at present. During the past several decades, human-produced pollutant emissions have undergone drastic and regionally distinctive changes, yet it remains unclear about the resulting global transboundary health impacts. Here we show that between 1950 and 2014, global anthropogenic PM2.5 has led to 185.7 million premature deaths cumulatively, including about 14% from transboundary pollution. Among four country groups at different affluence levels, on a basis of per capita contribution to transboundary mortality, a richer region tends to exert severer cumulative health externality, with the poorest bearing the worst net externality after contrasting import and export of pollution mortality. The temporal changes in transboundary mortality and cross-regional inequality are substantial. Effort to reduce PM2.5-related transboundary mortality should seek international collaborative strategies that account for historical responsibility and inequality.
Keywords: Health inequality, anthropogenic PM2.5 pollution, transboundary mortality, cumulative loss of lives
Full Paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S209592732100699X
Citation: Chen L, Lin J, Martin R, et al. Inequality in historical transboundary anthropogenic PM2.5 health impacts. Science Bulletin 2021. (IF 2021 = 11.78)
