Air pollution is known to hurt human health, contributing to approximately 3.4 million premature deaths globally in 2010. By looking at both different types of air pollution (PM2.5, ozone, etc.) and sources (road transportation, agriculture, household energy, shipping, etc.) it is possible to produce a global picture of air pollution distribution and how to most effectively reduce the impact on human health. This paper will look specifically at the road transportation source sector, discussing the current predictions of health effects and how these can be reduced in the future.
On-road transportation, which includes diesel and gasoline vehicles, accounted for approximately 240,000 of the global premature deaths associated with PM2.5 and ozone in 2015. The health effects associated with road transportation, in particular diesel vehicles, were brought to public attention after it was discovered that approximately 11 million Volkswagen light-duty vehicles (LDVs) had been fitted with a defeat device between the years 2009 to 2015; this device was used to detect when a vehicle was undergoing emissions testing and control the emission, making it appear as though the vehicles met the emission certification limits. These excess emissions pose a significant impact on human health since diesel vehicles are estimated to generate 20% of global nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, a direct cause of increasing PM2.5 and ozone levels.
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To help reduce the adverse effects on human health associated with road transportation (studies have found vehicle emissions to be associated with an increased risk of health conditions such as asthma, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease) many major vehicle markets have implemented emission standards required for all new heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) and LDVs. Whilst these policies have been crucial to significantly reduce exhaust emissions, as discussed above, there are still differences in the real world and certified emission limits largely due to excess diesel NOx. When evaluating road transportation-associated health effects all main fuel types must be considered, these are gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, and compressed natural gas.
The distribution of fuel types varies by region and vehicle type, HDVs tend to run on diesel whilst for LDVs approximately 40% of vehicles in Europe and nearly all of the LDVs in the USA use gasoline. To consider many types of fuel used for on-road transportation, a transportation attributable fraction (TAF) is often calculated. By definition, the TAF is the proportion of ambient particle matter attributable to surface transportation modeled on a global scale. The TAF can be used in association with different types of air pollution, this paper looks specifically at methods discussing PM2.5 and ozone-related TAFs. To look specifically at the health effects related to road transportation the TAF can be separated into four subsectors. In particular, this paper will focus on the results from the on-road diesel vehicles and on-road non-diesel vehicle subsectors.
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