Public health impact and economic costs of Volkswagen’s lack of compliance with the United States’ emission standards

Lifang Hou; Kai Zhang; Moira A. Luthin; Andrea A. Baccarelli

doi:10.3390/ijerph13090891

Public health impact and economic costs of Volkswagen’s lack of compliance with the United States’ emission standards

Lifang Hou, Kai Zhang^*, Moira A. Luthin, Andrea A. Baccarelli

^*Corresponding author for this work

Preventive Medicine

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

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a notice of violation against Volkswagen (VW) for installing a defective device in certain models of diesel cars to circumvent emission tests for nitrogen oxides (NO_x). We quantified the health and economic impacts of extra NO_xemissions attributable to non-compliant vehicles in the U.S. using the EPA’s Co-Benefits Risk Assessment model. We estimated that the total extra NO_xemitted over one year of operation would result in 5 to 50 premature deaths, 687 to 17,526 work days with restricted activity, and economic costs of $43,479,189 to $423,268,502, based on various assumptions regarding emission scenarios and risks. This study highlights the potential impacts of VW vehicles’ lack of compliance on the health and well-being of the U.S. population.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	891
Journal	International journal of environmental research and public health
Volume	13
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13090891
State	Published - Sep 8 2016

Keywords

Nitrogen oxides
Risk assessment
Vehicle emissions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Pollution
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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10.3390/ijerph13090891

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title = "Public health impact and economic costs of Volkswagen{\textquoteright}s lack of compliance with the United States{\textquoteright} emission standards",

abstract = "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a notice of violation against Volkswagen (VW) for installing a defective device in certain models of diesel cars to circumvent emission tests for nitrogen oxides (NOx). We quantified the health and economic impacts of extra NOxemissions attributable to non-compliant vehicles in the U.S. using the EPA{\textquoteright}s Co-Benefits Risk Assessment model. We estimated that the total extra NOxemitted over one year of operation would result in 5 to 50 premature deaths, 687 to 17,526 work days with restricted activity, and economic costs of $43,479,189 to $423,268,502, based on various assumptions regarding emission scenarios and risks. This study highlights the potential impacts of VW vehicles{\textquoteright} lack of compliance on the health and well-being of the U.S. population.",

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AU - Luthin, Moira A.

AU - Baccarelli, Andrea A.

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Public health impact and economic costs of Volkswagen’s lack of compliance with the United States’ emission standards

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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