Impacts of sectoral, regional, species, and day-specific emissions on air pollution and public health in Washington, DC

Regional emissions, originating from Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, were the most responsible for pollution-related health impacts in DC, contributing 57% of premature deaths impacts and 89% of asthma cases. Emissions from distant states contributed 34% more to PM2.5 exposure in the wintertime than in the summertime, occurring in parallel with strong wintertime westerlies and a reduced photochemical sink. Emission reductions between 2011 and 2016 resulted in health benefits of 76 (28-149) fewer pollution-attributable premature deaths and 227 (2-617) fewer NO2-attributable pediatric asthma cases.

The largest sectors contributing to decreases in pollution-related premature deaths were energy generation units (26%) and on-road vehicles (20%). Decreases in NO2-attributable pediatric asthma cases were mostly due to emission reductions from on-road vehicles (63%). Emission reductions from energy generation units were found to impact PM2.5 more than O-3, while on-road vehicle emission reductions impacted O-3 proportionally more than PM2.5.

This novel method is capable of capturing the sources of urban pollution at fine spatial and temporal scales and is applicable to many urban environments, globally.