Public Health Impact and Economic Costs of Volkswagen's Lack of Compliance with the United States' Emission Standards.
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 NOx emissions attributable to non-compliant vehicles in the U.S. using the EPA's Co-Benefits Risk Assessment model. We estimated that the total extra NOx emitted 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.
Department of Preventive Medicine and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. l-hou@northwestern.edu.
Lifang
L
Hou
Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA. kai.zhang@uth.tmc.edu.
Kai
K
Zhang
Department of Environmental Health, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. moira.luthin@gmail.com.
Moira A
MA
Luthin
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY 10032, USA. andrea.baccarelli@columbia.edu.
Andrea A
AA
Baccarelli
D000328:Adult; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D001336:Automobiles; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009589:Nitrogen Oxides / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D011634:Public Health; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency; D001335:Vehicle Emissions
D000393:Air Pollutants; D009589:Nitrogen Oxides; D001335:Vehicle Emissions
nitrogen oxides; risk assessment; vehicle emissions