Embedded Files
Influence of global trade on the human health impacts of particulate matter
Influence of global trade on the human health impacts of particulate matter
About this project
About this project
International trade separates the consumption of goods and services from their production and the respective human health impacts associated with environmental emissions. Using economic Input-Output tables, we quantified the PM2.5-related human health impacts caused by the consumption of 189 nations. We found that 26% of global PM2.5-induced health burden (~4M DALYs) was caused by production of goods for global exports, with developed nations (e.g., USA, Japan, and Germany) outsourcing not only economic production but also health impacts to Asia (e.g., China and India).
Sponsors
Sponsors
University of Michigan - Office of Vice President for Research (Mcubed)
Keywords
Keywords
Consumption, Fine particulate matter, Human health, Production, Trade
Project Summary
Project Summary
Fine particulate matter, particles of less than 2.5 µm diameter (PM2.5), contributes to lung cancer and cardiopulmonary mortality, accounting for ~3 million premature death worldwide, 70% of which occurring in Asia. Production of goods and services can be a major contributor to PM2.5. It is of great interest to understand the role of global trade in the generation of PM2.5 and its health impact, since trade dissociates consumers from negative health impacts displaced on other populations. Therefore, the aim of this project is to quantify the PM2.5 health impacts of consumed goods and services, accounting for international supply chains and studying the shift in PM2.5 impacts from developed countries to developing economies.
We developed a spatially explicit model to track the emissions and related impacts from goods and services over the global continuum of production and consumption (Figure 1). This model combines an environmentally extended multi-regional economic Input-Output (I/O) analysis with a multi-regional assessment of industrial primary PM2.5 fate, exposure and health burden for 190 nations. We estimated production-based human health impacts, representing the PM2.5-related human health impacts suffered by a nation from domestic production-related PM2.5 emissions, and consumption-based human health impacts, defined as the global PM2.5-related human health impacts induced by the consumption of a nation.
As illustrated in Figure 2A, North American consumers (USA and Canada) induced the highest global economic output ($190,000 per capita), with the majority (88%) of the induced economic output occurring domestically. The corresponding health burden from global PM2.5 emissions amounts to 3.3 x 10-3 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per capita, however, only 30% of the burden occurs domestically (Figure 2B). Therefore, North America, similar to most developed nations, can be classified as net burden importers which means that the PM2.5-related health burden associated with a nation's imports is larger than those embodied in its exports. On the contrary, Asian (China and South Asia) consumers induced the lowest economic output ($9,000 per capita, respectively), corresponding to 2.4 × 10−3 DALY per capita. The majority of both the economic output and the PM2.5-related health burden of an Asian consumer is domestic.
Interestingly, typical North American ($5,000/capita) and Asian ($7,000/capita) consumers induce similar economic outputs in Asia. However, meeting the needs of North American consumers generates health losses in Asia (1.7 × 10−3 DALY/capita) that are higher than those experienced domestically (1.3 × 10−3 DALY/capita). Overall, the consumption of North American consumers is estimated to have induced 596,000 DALY in Asia (China & South Asia and Japan & Koreas) in 2010, while the consumption of Asian consumers induced only 19,000 DALY in North America. However, it should be mentioned that only ~14% of the health burden suffered in Asia is due to the consumption in other nations.
Figure 1. Schematic representation of the approach followed to calculate PM2.5-related health burden from international trade.
Figure 2. The per capita economic output (A) and corresponding health burden induced from PM2.5 production-related emissions (B) generated by average consumers of six continental regions in 2010. The horizontal axis represents the population of each region; hence, the bar represents the total economic output (A) and health burden (B) of a region.
Overall, we found that 26% of global PM2.5-induced health burden (~4M DALYs) was caused by production of goods for global exports, with developed nations (e.g., USA, Japan, and Germany) outsourcing not only economic production but also health impacts to Asia (e.g., China and India).The findings of this study highlight the need for international joint and targeted efforts to reduce global PM2.5-related human health impacts, with consumption-based efforts complementing production-side emission reduction efforts.
The TED-like talk for this project was presented at MCubed 2014 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpWYJDonXEU
Publications
Publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles
- Liang, Sai, Katerina S. Stylianou, Oliver J. Jolliet, Sarang Supekar, Shen Qu, Steven J. Skerlos, and Ming Xu. (2017) “Consumption-based human health impacts of primary PM2.5: the hidden burden of international trade.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 167: 133-139. CSS17-26
Report abuse