Air quality

The warming climate doesn’t only melt ice caps and bleach coral reefs but also puts your health at risk. Climate change is no longer a far-removed issue, able to be cast off as a problem “of tomorrow.” Climate change alters health both through long-term stressors, such as air pollution1 and vector-borne diseases2, and through acute events, such as heat waves3 and hurricanes.4 These long and short term elements collectively influence public health around the world.  Climate change has health consequences from the scale of entire populations all the way down to the level of your cells.5 Here are six things that are sometimes forgotten regarding climate and health:  Climate change is associated with infectious disease spread As temperatures rise, disease vectors like mosquitoes and ticks move northward into newly habitable terrain.2,6,7 This means that diseases that were previously only endemic to t...

Dozens of wildfires are burning across Canada in May 2024 and sending unhealthy smoke blowing into the northern U.S. again. At the same time, the southeastern U.S. is getting smoke from Mexico, where drought conditions have been fueling fires. Last year, Canada’s record 2023 wildfire season introduced millions of Americans across the Midwest and northeastern states to the health hazards of wildfire smoke, with air quality alerts that reached levels never seen there before. Professional baseball games were postponed and the skies in New York City turned orange with haze, at times exposing millions of people to the worst air quality in the world. In some regions, the smoke hung on for days. The pressing question on many people’s minds: “Is this the new normal?” From our perspective as air quality scientists, we think the answer is likely “yes.” Global warming means more fires Hotter, drier conditions, coupled with dry grasses and underbrush...

New York City is poised to launch the first congestion pricing plan to reduce traffic in a major U.S. metropolitan area. Like many journeys in the Big Apple, this one has been punctuated by delays. Once the system starts up, however, it’s expected to significantly reduce gridlock in Manhattan and generate billions of dollars to improve public transit citywide. The basic idea is simple. To enter the Congestion Relief Zone, which covers Manhattan south of 60th Street, large trucks will pay $36, small trucks $24, passenger vehicles $15 and motorcycles $7.50. Ride-share vehicles and taxis will pay $2.50 and $1.25, respectively. Peak hours run from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends; overnight tolls are discounted by 75%. Evidence from cities around the world shows that charging motorists fees for driving into city centers during busy periods is a rarity in urban public policy: a measure that works and is cost-effective. Congestion pricing has succeed...

E-bikes have captured widespread attention across the U.S., and for good reason. They are the most energy-efficient way to move from place to place, providing exercise in the process, and offer enough assistance while pedaling uphill or into headwinds to make them usable for many types of riders. Greenhouse gas emissions from e-bikes are much lower than those from either gasoline-powered or electric cars. Some cities and states are encouraging the use of e-bikes by providing purchase incentives, often drawing on public funds dedicated to curbing climate change. Currently, over 100 cities and states have or plan to launch e-bike incentive programs, most funded by energy or environment initiatives. However, there has been little research on the effectiveness of these types of programs, how to design them or how to define goals. We study transportation from many angles, including innovation, sustainability and economics. Our new study, published in the journal Transportation Res...

Canada’s air pollution levels last year were worse than those in the United States for the first time since an air quality firm in Switzerland started publishing its assessments in 2018. The sixth World Air Quality report published Tuesday by Goldach, Switzerland-based IQAir says raging wildfires were a major influence on Canada’s drop in air quality in 2023, The Canadian Press reports. While the report found Canada on average still has some of the least polluted air, public health experts have repeatedly warned about the health dangers of more intense wildfire seasons, fuelled by human-caused climate change. “Air pollution is a silent killer,” said Dr. Samantha Green, a family physician with Unity Health Toronto and associate professor at the University of Toronto who was not involved with the report. “It’s a problem that I think we’re not used to thinking about, but that we need to be thinking about more.R...