Health impact assessment of PM2.5 from uncovered coal trains in the San Francisco Bay Area: Implications for global exposures

Bart Ostro; Yuanyuan Fang; Marc Carreras Sospedra; Heather Kuiper; Keita Ebisu; Nicholas Spada

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2024.118787

Health impact assessment of PM2.5 from uncovered coal trains in the San Francisco Bay Area: Implications for global exposures

Environ Res. 2024 Mar 29;252(Pt 1):118787. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118787. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Bart Ostro¹, Yuanyuan Fang², Marc Carreras Sospedra³, Heather Kuiper², Keita Ebisu⁴, Nicholas Spada⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of California, Air Quality Research Center, Davis, USA. Electronic address: bdostro@ucdavis.edu.
² Independent Consultant, USA.
³ University of California, Irvine, USA.
⁴ California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, USA.
⁵ University of California, Air Quality Research Center, Davis, USA.

PMID: 38555092
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118787

Abstract

Coal generates almost 40% of the world's electricity with 80 countries throughout the world using coal power. An inherent part of this generation is the rail transport of coal in uncovered cars, often up to a mile long. Existing studies document the subsequent increments of PM2.5 to the near-rail populations, which typically include a large number of economically disadvantaged residents and/or people of color. However, to date there is no assessment of the health implications of this stage in the use of coal. The present study quantifies such impacts on a region in the San Francisco Bay Area. The analysis shows important effects on mortality, hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory disease, asthma exacerbation, work loss, and days of restricted activity. Several of these outcomes exhibited a one to six percent increase over baseline. As such, it delineates the implications for the global effects of the transport of coal.

Keywords: Asthma; Coal; Dust; Mortality; PM2.5; Trains.