In cities across the country, people of color, many of them low-income, live in neighborhoods crisscrossed by major thoroughfares and highways. The housing there is often cheaper — it is not considered particularly desirable to wake up amidst traffic fumes and fall asleep to the rumble of vehicles over asphalt. But the price of living there is steep: Exhaust from all those cars and trucks results higher rates of childhood asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung disease. Many people die younger than they otherwise would have, and the medical costs and time lost to illness contribute to their poverty.
Imagine if none of those cars and trucks emitted any fumes at all, but instead ran on an electric charge. It would make a staggering difference in the trajectory, quality and length of millions of livesespecially those of young people growing up near freeways and other sources of air pollution, according to a study by the American Lung Association.
The study, released today, found that a widespread transition to EVs could avoid nearly 3 million asthma attacks and hundreds of infant deaths, in addition to millions of lower and upper respiratory ailments. Children, who are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, will benefit the most, says study author William Barret, the association’s national director of advocacy and clean air. “Kids are smaller, they breathe more air pound for pound than an adult,” Barret said. “The risk may be immediate, but it is also long-term.”
About 27 million children live in communities affected by high levels of air pollution, the study found. Their vulnerability begins in the womb, where vehicle exhaust, factory smoke and other pollutants can trigger inflammation in a fetus and its mother, causing health problems for both and leading to premature birth and congenital problems that can last a lifetime.
Previous research by the American Lung Association found that 120 million people in the U.S. breathe unhealthy air daily, and 72 million live near a major truck route — although, Barret added, there is no safe threshold for air pollution. It affects everyone.
Bipartisan efforts to strengthen clean air standards have already made a difference across the country. In California, which under the Clean Air Act, can set state rules stronger than national standards100 percent of new cars sold there must be no exemption by 2035. Truck manufacturers are already exceeding expected zero-emissions truck sales, according to the state’s Air Resources Board, which two years ahead of schedule. All that is required is for the EPA to grant California the waivers necessary to implement these standards.
Other states have also begun to act, often reaching across partisan lines to do so. Maryland, Colorado, New Mexico and Rhode Island have adopted zero emission standards starting in late 2023. Biden administration is taking similar stepsalthough it has his progress slowed after automakers and United Auto Workers pressured the administration to relax some of its stricter EV transition requirements.
While Barret finds efforts to support the electrification of passenger vehicles exciting, he said the biggest culprits are diesel trucks. “They’re 5 to 10 percent of the vehicles on the road, but they generate the most smog-forming emissions of ozone and nitrogen,” Barret said. Ozone is particularly harmful. When ozone makes its way inside the human body, it causes what amounts to a sunburn, inflaming and degrading respiratory tissues.
Lately, there has been considerable progress on truck decarbonization. The Biden administration has made promises to ensure that 30 percent of all major appliances sold are electric by 2030. California has moved aggressively to limit truck emissions, aiming to make medium- and heavy-duty vehicles zero-emission by 2035 “where possible,” while tightly regulating certain types of cargo trucks.
Although legislative mandates and tax incentives while those in the Inflation Reduction Act go a long way toward getting EVs on the road, they don’t eliminate internal combustion trucks and cars, which pose enough of a health threat that advocates are calling for immediate change.
Ideally, Barret said, the Biden administration would immediately roll out clear standards to reduce emissions. It is being considered truck standards which by 2032 will reduce heavy-duty vehicle emissions 29 percent below 2021 levels by using battery-electric and hybrid vehicles. The current standard only explicitly calls for the use of advanced diesel engines. The study’s authors also strongly recommend that the EPA finalize multi-pollutant regulations for light and medium duty vehicles, which are currently under consideration. Such measures, combined with an increase in public EV charging stations, vehicle tax credits and other incentives, could change America’s highways, not to mention health, for good.
“We just need to see more and more of it given the increasing urgency of the climate crisis,” Barret said.
