Vehicle emissions linked to thousands of deaths in northeast, Mid-Atlantic

An estimated 7,100 people in the northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions died as a result of exposure to ozone and fine particulate matter from vehicle emissions in 2016, according to a new study. Co-authored by Jonathan Buonocore, a research scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE), the findings were published June 8, 2021, in Environmental Research Letters and highlighted in a Boston Globe article on the same day.

“As policymakers consider how to transform the transportation sector—the largest source of carbon pollution—this research offers a roadmap for where to target investments to most cost-effectively improve air quality and health,” Buonocore said in a C-CHANGE release.

Read the Boston Globe article: Car pollution killed hundreds in Mass. and thousands across 12 states, researchers say