AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment of PM2.5 Health Impacts and Environmental Injustice
CHRISTOPHER TESSUM, Kimberley Mullins, Julian Marshall, Jason Hill, University of Minnesota
Abstract Number: 374 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract Background: Economic input-output life cycle assessment (EIO LCA) tracks life-cycle environmental impacts by sector of the economy. Prior EIO LCA research has not investigated spatially detailed air pollution health effects.
Aim: We quantify air quality health impacts attributable to primary and secondary PM$_(2.5) caused by economic activity in the U.S., and the differential impacts among demographic groups.
Methods: We add spatial detail to an existing EIO LCA model that splits the U.S. economy into 428 sectors and calculates emissions of PM$_(2.5) and its precursors directly and indirectly caused by economic activity in each sector. We model impacts to ambient PM$_(2.5) concentrations and public health using InMAP (Intervention Model for Air Pollution), a novel reduced-form air quality model.
Results: PM$_(2.5)-mediated health effects vary by 2-3 orders of magnitude among the 428 sectors, with $1 billion in economic activity causing between <1 and 400 deaths (median value: 15 deaths), depending on the sector. The largest impacts are caused by carbon black manufacturing, electricity generation, and cement manufacturing. In 60% of all sectors, including the three most damaging, secondary PM$_(2.5) accounts for more than 70% of total health impacts. For 23 sectors, monetized health damages are larger than the life cycle economic value added by that sector. For the eighth most damaging sector, aluminum smelting and alloying, emissions indirectly caused by demand generated in other sectors cause 2 orders of magnitude more damage than direct emissions do. Pollution from most sectors impacts non-white people more than white people (70% of sectors) and low-income people more than high-income people (90% of sectors).
Conclusion: Air pollution health damages per economic value added, and demographic disparities in those impacts, vary among the sectors of the U.S. economy.