Air pollution causing deaths crosses state lines, study shows

A study, published Wednesday in Nature, investigated the sources and effects of two major pollutants that result from fuel burning that harm humans in the Lower 48 states from 2005 to 2018: ozone and fine airborne particles. It found that in New York, nearly two-thirds of premature deaths are attributable to pollution from sources in other states. That makes the state the largest “net importer” of early deaths, to use the researchers’ term.

The analysis could have implications for policymakers looking for ways to reduce air pollution, and premature mortality, by regulating cross-state emissions. So far only emissions from electric power generation are regulated in this way, but the study looked at six other sources of pollutants, including other industries, road transportation, aviation, and commercial and residential sources like heating for homes and buildings.

“We know air quality is bad in many ways, and if we want to continue to improve it we need to understand what the causes are and what the effects are and to target the biggest contributors,” said Steven R.H. Barrett, director of the Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of the study.

Scientists have long known that air pollution from one area can have effects elsewhere. Damage to forests by acid rain in the Northeast in the 1960s was linked to coal-burning power plants in other regions, for example.

The new study, by Barrett, Irene Dedoussi of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and others, quantifies the effects of each state on every other, using pollution data and computer models to track pollution in the atmosphere.

“It’s putting a head count on it,” Barrett said.

The study found that the states that emitted...