Study Warns of Greater Health Risks From Air Pollution in California
California faces steeper public health costs from air pollution that is linked to global warming, according to a new study by a researcher at Stanford University, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The study is the first to measure the health costs of air pollution resulting exclusively from climate change, especially the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, experts said.
Mark Jacobson, the atmospheric scientist at Stanford who authored the study, said that for every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit increase in temperature from global warming, there are about 1,000 additional deaths and significantly more cases of respiratory disease each year. About 300 of those deaths are in California cities that already have high rates of air pollution, Jacobson said.
The research has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, an earth sciences journal.
The study is particularly noteworthy as California moves ahead with its lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency. California is seeking to adopt its own rules on auto emissions and fuel standards.
EPA officials declined to comment on Jacobson's study or his contention that his findings provide grounds to overturn EPA's denial of California's request to adopt its own emissions standards (Bowman, Sacramento Bee, 1/3).