All-Cause NO2-Attributable Mortality Burden and Associated Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the United States

Sara F. Camilleri; Gaige Hunter Kerr; Susan C. Anenberg; Daniel E. Horton

doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00500

All-Cause NO₂-Attributable Mortality Burden and Associated Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the United States

Sara F. Camilleri^*, Gaige Hunter Kerr, Susan C. Anenberg, Daniel E. Horton

^*Corresponding author for this work

Earth and Planetary Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is a regulated pollutant that is associated with numerous health impacts. Recent advances in epidemiology indicate high confidence linking NO₂ exposure with increased mortality, an association that recent studies suggest persists even at concentrations below regulatory thresholds. While large disparities in NO₂ exposure among population subgroups have been reported, U.S. NO₂-attributable mortality rates and their disparities remain unquantified. Here we provide the first estimate of NO₂-attributable all-cause mortality across the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) at the census tract-level. We leverage fine-scale, satellite-informed, land use regression model NO₂ concentrations and census tract-level baseline mortality data to characterize the associated disparities among different racial/ethnic subgroups. Across CONUS, we estimate that the NO₂-attributable all-cause mortality is ∼170,850 (95% confidence interval: 43,970, 251,330) premature deaths yr^-1 with large variability across census tracts and within individual cities. Additionally, we find that higher NO₂ concentrations and underlying susceptibilities for predominately Black communities lead to NO₂-attributable mortality rates that are ∼47% higher compared to CONUS-wide average rates. Our results highlight the substantial U.S. NO₂ mortality burden, particularly in marginalized communities, and motivate adoption of more stringent standards to protect public health.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1159-1164
Number of pages	6
Journal	Environmental Science and Technology Letters
Volume	10
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00500
State	Published - Dec 12 2023

Funding

We thank William Raich, Henry Roman, and Melanie Jackson from Industrial Economic and Neal Fann, Elizabeth Chan and Ali Kamal from the U.S. EPA for deriving and providing the census tract-level all-cause mortality rates used in this study. The NO2 concentrations used in this study can be found here:https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/SFC_NITROGEN_DIOXIDE_CONC_1/summary. D.E.H. acknowledges support from National Science Foundation CAREER Award CAS-Climate-2239834. S.C.A. and G.H.K. acknowledge support from NASA (Grant No. 80NSSC21K0511). We thank William Raich, Henry Roman, and Melanie Jackson from Industrial Economic and Neal Fann, Elizabeth Chan and Ali Kamal from the U.S. EPA for deriving and providing the census tract-level all-cause mortality rates used in this study. The NO concentrations used in this study can be found here: https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/SFC_NITROGEN_DIOXIDE_CONC_1/summary . D.E.H. acknowledges support from National Science Foundation CAREER Award CAS-Climate-2239834. S.C.A. and G.H.K. acknowledge support from NASA (Grant No. 80NSSC21K0511). 2

Keywords

Air pollution
NO mortality
environmental justice
health impacts
inequity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Water Science and Technology
Pollution
Waste Management and Disposal
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Ecology
Environmental Chemistry

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00500

Cite this

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title = "All-Cause NO2-Attributable Mortality Burden and Associated Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the United States",

abstract = "Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a regulated pollutant that is associated with numerous health impacts. Recent advances in epidemiology indicate high confidence linking NO2 exposure with increased mortality, an association that recent studies suggest persists even at concentrations below regulatory thresholds. While large disparities in NO2 exposure among population subgroups have been reported, U.S. NO2-attributable mortality rates and their disparities remain unquantified. Here we provide the first estimate of NO2-attributable all-cause mortality across the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) at the census tract-level. We leverage fine-scale, satellite-informed, land use regression model NO2 concentrations and census tract-level baseline mortality data to characterize the associated disparities among different racial/ethnic subgroups. Across CONUS, we estimate that the NO2-attributable all-cause mortality is ∼170,850 (95% confidence interval: 43,970, 251,330) premature deaths yr-1 with large variability across census tracts and within individual cities. Additionally, we find that higher NO2 concentrations and underlying susceptibilities for predominately Black communities lead to NO2-attributable mortality rates that are ∼47% higher compared to CONUS-wide average rates. Our results highlight the substantial U.S. NO2 mortality burden, particularly in marginalized communities, and motivate adoption of more stringent standards to protect public health.",

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author = "Camilleri, {Sara F.} and Kerr, {Gaige Hunter} and Anenberg, {Susan C.} and Horton, {Daniel E.}",

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AU - Horton, Daniel E.

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