Evaluation of the Health Impacts of Rolling Back a Port Clean Trucks Program

Air pollution emissions from marine port truck activity can pose significant health risks to communities living near ports. One approach to reducing these risks is requiring the use of low-emission trucks at port facilities. This analysis evaluates the predicted air quality impacts of the recent revision (rollback) of a Clean Truck Program at the Port of New York & New Jersey. We use the best publicly available information to estimate emissions, concentrations, and health risks at a fine spatial scale across eight counties in New Jersey in 2017 and 2018, when the impacts of the revision of the Clean Truck Program will likely be greatest. We find that as a result of the revision of the program, port truck PM2.5 emissions will be higher by seven to eight fold each year, concentrations will increase by up to 1 mu g/m(3), and the risk of death due to exposure to a year's emissions will increase by over 25 in a million in some areas. These effects are estimated in 2017 and 2018 but are expected to continue, gradually tapering off, for at least 15 years into the future. The magnitude of estimated effects of the revised program would be greater if this study had included a broader geographic region, a longer period of time, and a wider range of truck pollutants, exposure pathways, and health outcomes.