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Reliance upon fossil fuels and limited greenspace contribute to poor indoor and outdoor air quality and adverse health outcomes, particularly in communities of color. This article describes justice-informed public health and legal interventions to increase access to greenspace and accelerate the transitions to renewable energy and away from gas appliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many governments, enacting green policies is a priority, but such policies often impose on citizens substantial and uneven costs. How does the introduction of green policies affect voting? We study this question in the context of a major ban on polluting cars introduced in Milan, which was strongly opposed by the populist right party Lega. Using several inferential strategies, we show that owners of banned vehicles—who incurred a median loss of €3,750—were significantly more likely to vote for Lega in the subsequent elections. Our analysis indicates that this electoral change did not stem from a broader shift against environmentalism, but rather from disaffection with the policy's uneven pocketbook implications. In line with this pattern, recipients of compensation from the local government were not more likely to switch to Lega. The findings highlight the central importance of distributive consequences in shaping the political ramifications of green policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Recently enacted environmental justice policies in the United States at the state and federal level emphasize addressing place-based inequities, including persistent disparities in air pollution exposure and associated health impacts. Advances in air quality measurement, models, and analytic methods have demonstrated the importance of finer-scale data and analysis in accurately quantifying the extent of inequity in intraurban pollution exposure, although the necessary degree of spatial resolution remains a complex and context-dependent question. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this commentary were to a) discuss ways to maximize and evaluate the effectiveness of efforts to reduce air pollution disparities, and b) argue that environmental regulators must employ improved methods to project, measure, and track the distributional impacts of new policies at finer geographic and temporal scales. DISCUSSION: The historic federal investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Biden Administration's commitment to Justice40 present an unprecedented opportunity to advance climate and energy policies that deliver real reductions in pollution-related health inequities. In our opinion, scientists, advocates, policymakers, and implementing agencies must work together to harness critical advances in air quality measurements, models, and analytic methods to ensure success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the state of the climate emergency, European Union (EU) cities must find innovative ways to achieve a sustainable and decarbonised urban mobility trajectory. This requires integrated and crosssectoral approaches that enable all sectors influencing such mobility to contribute to this goal. Building on the concept of the climate-connected city and drawing on an extensive empirical investigation of two Dutch cities (Rotterdam and Maastricht), this study reflects on how decarbonisation targets are integrated with other sustainability objectives across all policies and levels involved in reconfiguring mobility towards an environmentally sustainable model. The study finds that spatial development tools and processes, in combination with regulatory instruments imposing strict limits on emissions, can strengthen cross-sectoral support for the behavioural changes needed to decarbonise urban mobility. However, this integrative dynamic may be countered by local economic actors and by national and EU economic and fiscal instruments, whose narrow focus on reducing vehicle emissions and expanding road capacity forces cities to dilute their sustainable mobility policies. This suggests that in order to accelerate the decarbonisation of urban mobility, these instruments should be aligned with a broader set of sustainability goals and solutions and be combined with greater attention being given to the urban dimension into national and European transport policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the work is to determine whether and how the local government authorities of the largest cities in Poland apply reliefs and exemptions in the tax on means of transport to support owners of hybrid and electric trucks. In addition, an answer was sought to the question whether the amount of the aforementioned preferences was correlated with the dynamics of the number of vehicles powered in whole or in part by electricity in the analyzed period. Methodology: The study covered all 63 cities in Poland with poviat rights. The resolutions adopted by the local government authorities of these centers in 2018-2020 regarding the rates of tax on means of transport were reviewed. Based on the texts of legal acts, the criteria used for granting tax preferences were defined, the amount of reliefs was calculated, and the statistical tool in the form of the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to check whether there is a relationship between the scale of tax benefits and the growth rate of the number of hybrid and electric vehicles. Findings: It was found that only half of the municipalities used reduced tax rates in the analyzed period, while different requirements regarding the level of exhaust gas emissions were adopted in different local government units, so that owners of hybrid and electric trucks in individual cities could usually benefit from the reduction on an equal footing with owners of similar vehicles with lower but also different emission standards from Euro 1 to Euro 6. Practical implications: The results of the research can be used by local governments. They show, among other things, that the mere reduction of tax rates is insufficient for the promotion of environmentally friendly means of transport and that these activities should also be supported by other solutions. Originality/value: In the literature, the subject of differentiation of tax rates on means of transport to stimulate the increase in the number of rolling stock powered by electricity has not been generally taken up so far or has been the subject of research very rarely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Recently, the World Health Organization reported that 20% of all global maternal deaths happened in Nigeria between 2005 and 2015. In developing countries, these maternal deaths are mainly from air pollution. Due to poor facilities and documentation, the extent of danger is not known. This research seeks to estimate the available pollutants and its direct and indirect impact on maternal mortality. Ten (10) years (2010–2019) datasets of black carbon, sulfur dioxide, dust, carbon monoxide, organic carbon particulates, sea-salts, and sulphate particulates were obtained from the second modern-era retrospective analysis for research and applications (MERRA-2). The dataset was obtained for the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and analyzed using statistical tool, models, spatial interpolation, and risk analysis. The volumetric and radioecological risk was also analyzed. It was observed the dust content had minute volume of heavy metal and/or radionuclide particles that may be unharmful in the short term but lethal in the long term. The risk quotient and total dose rate per organism are given as 0.00000396 and 0.0000396 µGy h−1. The result in this manuscript corroborates existing data on maternal mortality in Nigeria. It is recommended that the safety of pregnant woman depends on significant efforts of authorities to enact and enforce environmental laws to mitigate air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution levels in the United States have decreased dramatically over the past decades, yet national racial-ethnic exposure disparities persist. For ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5), we investigate three emission-reduction approaches and compare their optimal ability to address two goals: 1) reduce the overall population average exposure ("overall average") and 2) reduce the difference in the average exposure for the most exposed racial-ethnic group versus for the overall population ("national inequalities"). We show that national inequalities in exposure can be eliminated with minor emission reductions (optimal: ~1% of total emissions) if they target specific locations. In contrast, achieving that outcome using existing regulatory strategies would require eliminating essentially all emissions (if targeting specific economic sectors) or is not possible (if requiring urban regions to meet concentration standards). Lastly, we do not find a trade-off between the two goals (i.e., reducing overall average and reducing national inequalities); rather, the approach that does the best for reducing national inequalities (i.e., location-specific strategies) also does as well as or better than the other two approaches (i.e., sector-specific and meeting concentration standards) for reducing overall averages. Overall, our findings suggest that incorporating location-specific emissions reductions into the US air quality regulatory framework 1) is crucial for eliminating long-standing national average exposure disparities by race-ethnicity and 2) can benefit overall average exposures as much as or more than the sector-specific and concentration-standards approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the causal relationship between air pollution and dementia prevalence. Leveraging the strict air pollution regulations implemented during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and employing a Synthetic Difference-in-Differences (SDID) approach, we find that a 1 μ g/m 3 decrease in annual PM 10 levels corresponds to a 0.82 percentage point reduction in dementia prevalence (equivalent to 2.39% of the mean). Analyses across demographics show a more pronounced impact on vulnerable groups. Moreover, an economic assessment suggests that a 10 μ g/m 3 reduction in China's air pollution in 2010 could generate up to 2.36 billion US dollars in benefits due to a lower dementia prevalence. These results highlight the potential public health gains achievable through air pollution regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Carbon fibers are used in a variety of industrial applications, based on their lightweight and high stiffness properties. There is little information on the characteristics and exposure levels of debris generated during the factory processing of carbon fibers or their composites. This study revisits the general assumption that carbon fibers or their debris released during composite processing are considered safe for human health. Methods: The present interventional study was conducted at a factory located in Japan, and involved on-site collection of debris generated during the industrial processing of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP). The debris were collected before being exhausted locally from around different factory machines and examined morphologically and quantitatively by scanning electron microscopy. The levels of exposure to respirable carbon fibers at different areas of the factory were also quantified. Results: The collected debris mainly contained the original carbon fibers broken transversely at the fiber's major axis. However, carbon fiber fragments morphologically compatible with the WHO definition of respirable fibers (length: > 5 μm, width: < 3 μm, length/width ratio: > 3:1) were also found. The concentrations of respirable fibers at the six examined factory areas under standard working conditions in the same factory were below the standard limit of 10 fibers/L, specified for asbestos dust-generating facilities under the Air Pollution Control Law in Japan. Conclusions: Our study identified potentially dangerous respirable fibers with high aspect ratio, which was generated during the processing of PAN-based CFRP. Regular risk assessment of carbon fiber debris is necessary to ensure work environment safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new framework for investigating regional CO2 emissions from the perspective of the domestic supply chain, with a combination of linkage analysis and structural decomposition analysis (SDA), which allows for a better understanding of spatial emission distributions and cross-boundary potential for CO2 mitigation. Based on the multi-regional input–output (MRIO) tables of 2007 and 2012, Chinese provinces (cities) are categorised into three groups according to linkage characteristics, among which, Group I is suggested to be given priority in formulating mitigation policies due to their stronger regional CO2 influence characteristics. Moreover, regions in Group I have been more affected by inter-regional trade than other groups with regard to their local CO2 emissions. Therefore, turning Group I into a low-carbon production pattern could help construct greener domestic supply chains. The results emphasise that regional analysis on CO2 emissions should go beyond the local factors, and that regional mitigation polices should consider the position and participation degree of different regions in domestic supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: To better carry out air pollution control and to assist in accurate investigations of air pollution, in this study, we fully explore the spatial distribution characteristics of air pollution complaint results and provide guidance for air pollution control by combining regional air monitoring data. (2) Methods: By selecting the air pollution complaint information in Beijing from 2019 to 2020, in this study, we extract the names and addresses of complaint points, as well as the complaint times and types by adopting the BERT (bidirectional encoder representations from transformers) + CRF (conditional random field) model deep learning method. Moreover, through further filtering and processing of the complaint points' address information, we achieve address matching and spatial positioning of the complaint points, and realize the regional spatial representation of air pollution complaints in Beijing in the form of a heat map. (3) Results: The experimental results are compared and analyzed with the ranking data of total suspended particulate (TSP) concentration of townships (streets) in Beijing during the same period, indicating that the key areas of air pollution complaints have a high correlation with the key polluted township (street) areas. The distribution of complaints and the types of complaints in each township (street) differ according to the population density in each township (street), the level of education, and economic activity. (4) Conclusions: The results of this study show that the public, as the intuitive perceiver of air pollution, is sensitive to the air pollution situation at a smaller spatial scale; furthermore, complaints can provide guidance and reference for the direction of air pollution control and law enforcement investigations when coupled with geographical features and economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of regulating emissions from merchant ships has become more stringent than ever, particularly given the effectiveness of Sulphur Cap 2020. States are not only empowered but also obliged to take emission abatement actions within the framework set by several international instruments. The effectiveness of these international instruments depends very much on their implementation by the states. This paper aims to reveal and evaluate the implementation of emission abatement measures (EAMs) in China as a flag, coastal and port state, through the exercise of its prescriptive and enforcement jurisdiction under international law. After an extensive review and consultation with experts, this paper finds that China has sufficiently exploited its prescriptive jurisdiction through the processes of legislation. Yet, the both provisions of the Chinese laws and the empirical evidence suggest the need of a more detailed protocols to enforce the Chinese EAMs to achieve the desired deterrent effect. Currently, technological restrictions of the emission detecting devices remain to be a significant hurdle to enforce jurisdiction over vessel source emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the court case Clean Air Council v. U.S. Steel related to U.S. Steel's violation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) permits and regulations. Topics include the responsibility of facilities that release hazardous substances to notify the federal government under threat of penalty as required under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the CERCLA exemptions on mandatory reporting, and details of the U.S. Third Circuit ruling on the case.

The link between air pollution and poor public health is well known and has been jit,-ther documented during the COVID-19 pandemic,1 but EPA has outdated methods and rules to detect air emissions. Enforcing existing environmental regulations presents challenges because the detection and monitoring technologies identified in the regulations, or the regulation language itself, may not stil. ficiently identify environmental pollution. let alone complex environmental fraud. How can EPA best use new technologies and concepts to detect violations, with the intent of minimizing emissions, to improve human health and environmental outcomes during the lengthy process of drcifting and publishing new regulations? As EPA's expertise lies in the promulgation and enforcement of emission standards, not in developing software fixes or manufacturing technologies to detect or address violations, collaboration with other stakeholders is important to achieve overall emission reductions. This Article identifies the need for a collaborative approach with industry and public interest groups to explicitly adopt certain technologies and methods to detect violations, and it provides supporting case studies from recent mobile and stationary source air enjorcement cases illustrating that improved detection leads to industrv-developed technologies that minimize emissions. If regulated entities choose to use these technologies to monitor and maintain their own compliance with the Clean Air Act, overall emissions will decrease, with a likely increase in public health. This Article recommends that all stakeholders work together to propose nelt' detection methods and remedied technologies that EPA may use to collect evidence for enforcement actions and to resolve noncomplia}ice. These technologies may be incorporated into future regulations to improve transparency and fairness in the enforcement process, ultimately minimizing the likelihood of complex litigation that may delay remedial actions that address excessive emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the other hand, official narratives insisted that that socialist industrialization "would not cause pollution" (60), and propaganda claimed that air pollution did not exist in China. Thus, despite a variety of air pollution incidents, a lack of concern about air pollution persisted. It was foreign governments and the press that first observed and responded to a number of air pollution events in China. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents the discussion on associated mitigation in rising temperatures leading to significant reductions in climate damages and net improvements to welfare. Topics include social cost of carbon (SCC) being a critical input into assessing potential climate policies having benefits exceeding the costs; and monetizing value of all future net damages associated with the release of an additional ton of carbon dioxide.

The unequal spatial distribution of ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an air pollutant related to traffic, leads to higher exposure for minority and low socioeconomic status communities. We exploit the unprecedented drop in urban activity during the COVID-19 pandemic and use high-resolution, remotely sensed NO2 observations to investigate disparities in NO2 levels across different demographic subgroups in the United States. We show that, prior to the pandemic, satellite-observed NO2 levels in the least White census tracts of the United States were nearly triple the NO2 levels in the most White tracts. During the pandemic, the largest lockdown-related NO2 reductions occurred in urban neighborhoods that have 2.0 times more non-White residents and 2.1 times more Hispanic residents than neighborhoods with the smallest reductions. NO2 reductions were likely driven by the greater density of highways and interstates in these racially and ethnically diverse areas. Although the largest reductions occurred in marginalized areas, the effect of lockdowns on racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic NO2 disparities was mixed and, for many cities, nonsignificant. For example, the least White tracts still experienced -1.5 times higher NO2 levels during the lockdowns than the most White tracts experienced prior to the pandemic. Future policies aimed at eliminating pollution disparities will need to look beyond reducing emissions from only passenger traffic and also consider other collocated sources of emissions such as heavy-duty vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 20 December 2019, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, in the decision of The State of the Netherlands v Urgenda Foundation, upheld the lower courts' finding that the State of the Netherlands is legally obliged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 25 percent by the end of 2020 compared to 1990 levels. The Supreme Court's widely acclaimed decision is principally grounded in human rights law, with specific standards deduced from international climate change law and science. This case note analyses the role of international law in the Supreme Court's reasoning, with attention to both strengths and weaknesses of the judgement. First, it highlights parts of the judgement that represent best practice in adjudicating climate change, such as the operationalization of an integrated approach to international law. Second, it identifies human rights questions resulting from the Supreme Court's narrow focus on the rights of residents of the Netherlands in determining a specific mitigation target. It concludes with reflections on how the universality of human rights can be safeguarded in rights‐based climate litigation before domestic courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article contrasts Reagan-era conservative support for Chevron U.S.A. v. NRDC with conservative opposition to Chevron deference today. That dramatic shift offers important context for understanding how future attacks on the administrative state will develop. Newly collected historical evidence shows a sharp pivot after President Obama's reelection, and conservative opposition to Chevron deference has become stronger ever since. The sudden emergence of anti-Chevron critiques, along with their continued growth during a Republican presidency, suggests that such arguments will increase in power and popularity for many years to come. Although critiques of Chevron invoke timeless rhetoric about constitutional structure, those critiques began at a very specific moment, and that historical coincidence fuels existing skepticism about such arguments' substantive merit. This Article analyzes institutional questions surrounding Chevron with deliberate separation from modern politics. Regardless of one's substantive opinions about President Trump, federal regulation, or administrative deference, this Article identifies extraordinary costs to the legal system of overruling Chevron through mechanisms of constitutional law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To compare ambient air quality standards for the mass concentration of aerosol particles smaller than approximately 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and exposure to these particles in national and regional jurisdictions worldwide. Methods We did a review of government documents and literature on air quality standards. We extracted and summarized the PM2.5 concentration limits effective before July 2020, noting whether standards were enforced, voluntary or target. We compared averaging methods and permitted periods of time that standards may be exceeded. We made a descriptive analysis of PM2.5 standards by population, total area and population density of jurisdictions. We also compared data on actual PM2.5 air quality against the standards. Findings We obtained data on standards from 62 jurisdictions worldwide, including 58 countries. Of the world's 136.06 million km² land under national jurisdictions, 71.70 million km² (52.7%) lack an official PM2.5 air quality standard, and 3.17 billion people live in areas without a standard. The existing standards ranged from 8 to 75 µg/m³, mostly higher than the World Health Organization guideline annual limit of < 10 µg/m³. The weakest PM2.5 standards were often exceeded, while the more stringent standards were often met. Several jurisdictions with the highest population density demonstrated compliance with relatively stringent standards. Conclusion The metrics used in PM2.5 ambient air quality standards should be harmonized worldwide to facilitate accurate assessment of risks associated with PM2.5 exposure. Population density alone does not preclude stringent PM2.5 standards. Modernization of standards can also include short-term standards to unmask PM2.5 fluctuations in high-pollution areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about poor air quality as a public health issue. Topics covered include how air quality impacts health throughout a person's lifespan, ways on how central and local government action can impact air pollution, and the role that community nurses play in supporting those with respiratory diseases.

As evidenced by the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, corporations cheat on environmental regulations. Such scandals have created a surge in the academic literature in a wide range of areas. including corporate law. administrative law, and deterrence theory. This Article jitrthers that literature by jocusing on one particular area of corporate cheating-the ability to learn of the cheating in the first place. Detecting corporate cheating requires significant information about corporate behavior, activity, and output. Indeed, most agencies have broad statutory authority to collect such information from corporations, through targeted records requests and inspection. However, authority is different from ability. The corporate world moves quickly. the number of regulated entities are many. and agencies often face legal and resource challenges to information collection processes that can impede detection of cheating. As a result, this Article advocates for a shift in focus to mandatory self-monitoring and reporting mechanisms that place the initial burden of detection on the regulated corporate entity instead of the agency. This Article uses, as a case study, sulfur dioxide air pollution standards in the shipping industry to demonstrate that such a shift can improve the likelihood of detecting cheating. International standards for the harmful pollutant sulfur dioxide became more stringent in January 2020. and the price difference between compliance and noncompliance is high. Theatre, there is a significant incentive for shipping companies to cheat. Failure of agencies to catch the cheaters not only undermines the anticipated public benefits of the regulations but also creates an uneven playing field for those regulated entities that spend the money to comply. However, agencies alone simply cannot be expected to detect all corporate cheating. They need help from those that have the requisite information, specifically the regulated entities themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Although elevated air pollution exposure impairs lung-function development in childhood, it remains a challenge to use this information to estimate the potential public health benefits of air pollution interventions in exposed populations.Objectives: Apply G-computation to estimate hypothetical effects of several realistic scenarios for future air pollution reductions on lung growth.Methods: Mixed-effects linear regression was used to estimate FEV1 and FVC from age 11 to 15 years in 2,120 adolescents across 3 cohorts (1993-2001, 1997-2004, and 2007-2011). Models included regional pollutants (nitrogen dioxide [NO2] or particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm [PM2.5]) and other important covariates. Using G-computation, a causal inference-based method, we then estimated changes in mean lung growth in our population for hypothetical interventions on either NO2 or PM2.5. Confidence intervals (CIs) were computed by bootstrapping (N = 1,000).Measurements and Main Results: Compared with the effects of exposure from observed NO2 concentrations during the study period, had communities remained at 1994 to 1997 NO2 levels, FEV1 and FVC growth were estimated to have been reduced by 2.7% (95% CI, -3.6 to -1.8) and 4.2% (95% CI, -5.2 to -3.4), respectively. If NO2 concentrations had been reduced by 30%, we estimated a 4.4% increase in FEV1 growth (95% CI, 2.8-5.9) and a 7.1% increase in FVC growth (95% CI, 5.7-8.6). Comparable results were observed for PM2.5 interventions.Conclusions: We estimated that substantial increases in lung function would occur as a result of interventions that reduce NO2 or PM2.5 concentrations. These findings provide a quantification of potential health benefits of air quality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]