Search

[Display omitted] Atmospheric transport of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), 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 PM 2.5 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 PM 2.5 -related transboundary mortality should seek international collaborative strategies that account for historical responsibility and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to combat environmental pollution, China enacted the Environmental Protection Tax Law in early 2018. Yet the impacts of the environmental tax on individual regions with different socioeconomic statuses, which are crucial for social justice and public acceptance, remain unclear. Based on a Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) table and a nationally regulated tax payment calculation method, this study analyzes the distributional impacts of an environmental tax based upon province's consumption from both inter-provincial and rural-urban aspects. The national tax revenue based on the current levy mechanism is estimated to be only one seventh of the economic loss from premature mortality caused by ambient particulate matter (PM 2.5). The taxation may slightly alleviate urban-rural inequality but may not be helpful with reducing inter-provincial inequality. We further analyze two alternative levy mechanisms. If each province imposes taxes to products it consumes (rather than produces, as in the current mechanism), with the tax rate linearly dependent on its per capita consumption expenditure, this would moderately increase the national tax revenue and significantly reduce inter-provincial inequality. To better compensate for the economic costs of air pollution and reduce regional inequality, it would be beneficial to increase the tax rate nationwide and implement a levy mechanism based on provincially differentiated levels of consumption and economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite much effort made in studying human health associated with fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), our knowledge about PM 2.5 and human health from a long-term perspective is still limited by inadequately long data. Here, we presented a novel method to retrieve surface PM 2.5 mass concentrations using surface visibility measurements and GEOS-Chem model simulations. First, we used visibility measurements and the ratio of PM 2.5 and aerosol extinction coefficient (AEC) in GEOS-Chem to calculate visibility-inferred PM 2.5 at individual stations (SC-PM 2.5). Then we merged SC-PM 2.5 with the spatial pattern of GEOS-Chem modeled PM 2.5 to obtain a gridded PM 2.5 dataset (GC-PM 2.5). We validated the GC-PM 2.5 data over the North China Plain on a 0.3125° longitude x 0.25° latitude grid in January, April, July and October 2014, using ground-based PM 2.5 measurements. The spatial patterns of temporally averaged PM 2.5 mass concentrations are consistent between GC-PM 2.5 and measured data with a correlation coefficient of 0.79 and a linear regression slope of 0.8. The spatial average GC-PM 2.5 data reproduce the day-to-day variation of observed PM 2.5 concentrations with a correlation coefficient of 0.96 and a slope of 1.0. The mean bias is less than 12 μg/m3 (<14%). Future research will validate the proposed method using multi-year data, for purpose of studying long-term PM 2.5 variations and their health impacts since 1980. • We integrate visibility data and GEOS-Chem simulations to estimate PM 2.5 concentrations in 2014 over North China. • Visibility converted PM 2.5 are spatiotemporally consistent with PM 2.5 measurements. • Our method provides a novel, plausible way to retrieve long-term variation of PM 2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]