Abstract TP187: The Mortality Cost Of Air Pollution And Carbon Dioxide Related To Mobile Stroke Unit Operation

Abstract

Background: Mobile stroke units (MSU) have reduced time to thrombolysis, improved outcomes in ischemic stroke, but their sustainability and external costs have not been thoroughly evaluated. Fossil fuel combustion produces carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and air pollution, which contribute to global climate crisis and excess mortality. Aim: To estimate the mortality cost of MSU due to increment of CO 2 and air pollution from fuel burned by MSU. Methods: Fuel cost of annual operation of MSU, obtained through correspondence, was used to obtain annual volume of gasoline burned by MSU. Estimate of excess global mortality between 2020 and 2100 from CO 2 -related climate change per increment of CO 2 was obtain from literature on the Mortality Cost of Carbon. Assuming the annual city-wide fuel consumption by road vehicles (publicly available) is directly proportional to excess mortality attributable to local traffic-related fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) air pollution (obtained from the literature), I estimated the increment of excess mortality related to air pollution produced by MSU operations. Results: Annual operation of one MSU burned 14.552 EUR of fuel, or 10.3 ton of gasoline, producing 24.7 ton of CO 2 . Such an increment of CO 2 in 2020 is expected to cause 0.0056 excess deaths (95% CI -0.0042, 0.0168) globally between 2020 and 2100 by contribution to climate crisis. In Berlin, mobile sources burn about 1.250.000 tons of liquid fossil fuel annually; and ~744 of annual deaths are attributable to traffic-related air pollution [2.17% (95% CI 1.55%, 2.79%) of total mortality]. Assuming the emission factor of MSU is the same as the local vehicle average, MSU-related air pollution leads to 0.0061 excess deaths (95% CI: 0.0044, 0.0079) per MSU-year. Conclusion: Fossil fuel combustion related to MSU operation is estimated to cause 0.0117 excess annual deaths (95% CI 0.0002, 0.0247) due to contribution to local air pollution and global climate crisis.