Electric cars – and their continued sales growth – are expected to have a greener, cleaner influence on air pollution and reduce human mortality in most, if not all, U.S. metropolitan areas, according to Cornell research published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (March 2023).
As the microscopic soot discharged from carbon-fueled cars continues to drop substantially, the research measured the potential of the large-scale use of passenger electric vehicles on air pollution and associated economic gains throughout the U.S. by 2050.
“While we enjoy the mobility that passenger vehicles provide, many of us don’t realize how bad those carbon emissions are, that come out from tailpipes, and how they’re impacting our health,” said senior author Oliver Gao, the Howard Simpson Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering.
Gao and his colleagues examined data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Emission Inventory, the Community Multi-scale Air Quality modeling system and an associated tool, which estimates the economic value of health impacts resulting from changes in air quality – specifically ground-level fine particles (2.5 micrometers and smaller, known as PM2.5.)
Read more at Cornell University
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