Abstract
Fossil fuel vehicles, emitting air toxics into the atmosphere, impose a heavy burden on the economy through additional health care expenses and ecological degradation. Air pollution is responsible for millions of deaths and chronic and acute health problems every year, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The fossil-fuel-based transportation system releases tons of toxic gases into the atmosphere putting human health at risk, especially in urban areas. This analysis aims to determine the economic burden of environmental and health impacts caused by Highway 401 traffic. Due to the high volume of vehicles driving on the Toronto Highway 401 corridor, there is an annual release of 3771 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). These emissions are mainly emitted onsite through the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuel. The integration of electric and hydrogen vehicles shows maximum reductions of 405–476 g CO2e per vehicle-kilometer. Besides these carbon dioxide emissions, there is also a large amount of hazardous air pollutants. To examine the impact of air pollution on human health, the mass and concentrations of criteria pollutants of PM2.5 and NOx emitted by passenger vehicles and commercial trucks on Highway 401 were determined using the MOVES2014b software. Then, an air dispersion model (AERMOD) was used to find the concentration of different pollutants at the receptor’s location. The increased risk of health issues was calculated using hazard ratios from literature. Finally, the health cost of air pollution from Highway 401 traffic was estimated to be CAD 416 million per year using the value of statistical life, which is significantly higher than the climate change costs of CAD 55 million per year due to air pollution.
Highlights
This paper presents an assessment of the impacts of electric passenger vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell trucks on human health and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Toronto 401 corridor
The results from this paper show the significant health and environmental effects of traffic-related air pollution on people who are living in the vicinity of major highways in Canada, and to a certain extent, in the vicinity of other major highways in the world, as well as providing a potential solution by showing the benefits of a mass roll-out of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs)
The transportation sector has the highest potential for environmental and health cost reduction amongst other energy-related sectors such as the commercial, industrial, and residential sectors. Pollutants such as PM, O3, SOx, and NOx emitted from major highways significantly impact people’s life expectancy. These hightraffic highways have a major role in producing GHG emissions
Summary
The air quality is worst in highly populated urban areas, such as the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) [2]. This decrease in air quality can be attributed to fossil-fuel-powered Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEV) [3]. These ICEVs cause the increased concentration of harmful products in the air, including CO, O3 , NO2 , and PM2.5 which are known to cause acute and chronic medical problems such as asthma, bronchiolitis, and lung cancer [4]. This paper presents an assessment of the impacts of electric passenger vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell trucks on human health and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Toronto 401 corridor
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