Quantifying the human health benefits of curbing air pollution in Shanghai

Jia Li

This article discusses the increasing health consequences occurring in people in growing cities from exposure to high carbon dioxide emissions. It researches whether costs for reducing CO2 emissions is worth the health benefits resulting from emission reduction. Shanghai, China is used as an example in the study. Researchers compare the health ramifications of doing nothing-no change versus adapting two different control measures. Researchers perform a health benefit analysis in which they compare health of people at different endpoints to evaluate whether the control measures affect health substantially. Due to the increasing population in Shanghai emissions will continue to increase profoundly which will affect health of people in a negative manner. The study showed that eliminating the use of coal completely and replacing the energy source with a renewable energy profoundly reduces incidences of disease and also reduces lost days from work because of common respiratory illness associated with contact with air pollution. Overall, the study proved aggressive pollution control standards will reduce disease and protect the health of people.

This article was also beneficial to my research project because it showed the link between CO2 emissions and disease. It also was useful in determining if the costs of switching to alternative energy sources outweighs the risk of disease by not switching. Converting to renewable energy sources definitely has less long term costs than staying status quo.insert citation here
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a, Sarath K. Guttikundab, Gregory R. Carmichaelb, David G. Streetsc, Young-Soo Changc, Virginia Fungd. "Quantifying the human health benefits of curbing air pollution in Shanghai." Journal of Environmental Management 70 (2004) 49-62, http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/science?=MImg&_imagekey=B6WJ7-4BBH9GW-1-S&_cdi=6871&_user=1822432&_pii=S0301479703001956&_origin=search&_zone=rslt_list_item&_coverDate=01%2F31%2F2004&_sk=999299998&wchp=dGLbVzW-zSkWb&md5=4e4660b21513ac52227dff6d2f15ffb4&ie=/sdarticle.pdf.