Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 110, Issue 32, Pages 12936-12941Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1300018110
Keywords
airborne particulate matter; unintended consequences of policy; premature mortality; health costs of coal combustion; Chinese environmental quality
Categories
Funding
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Falk Institute
- Israel Foundation Trustees
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [71025004, 71121001, 71073002, 70903003]
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This paper's findings suggest that an arbitrary Chinese policy that greatly increases total suspended particulates (TSPs) air pollution is causing the 500 million residents of Northern China to lose more than 2.5 billion life years of life expectancy. The quasi-experimental empirical approach is based on China's Huai River policy, which provided free winter heating via the provision of coal for boilers in cities north of the Huai River but denied heat to the south. Using a regression discontinuity design based on distance from the Huai River, we find that ambient concentrations of TSPs are about 184 mu g/m(3) [95% confidence interval (CI): 61, 307] or 55% higher in the north. Further, the results indicate that life expectancies are about 5.5 y (95% CI: 0.8, 10.2) lower in the north owing to an increased incidence of cardiorespiratory mortality. More generally, the analysis suggests that long-term exposure to an additional 100 mu g/m(3) of TSPs is associated with a reduction in life expectancy at birth of about 3.0 y (95% CI: 0.4, 5.6).
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