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WASHINGTON — Hundreds of infants' lives would be saved and millions of children would breathe easier across the U.S. if the nation's power grid depended on clean energy and more drivers made the switch to zero-emission vehicles, according to a new report from the American Lung Association.
This latest report estimates that by 2050, a switch to zero-emission vehicles and a decarbonized electric grid would mean 2.79 million fewer pediatric asthma attacks, 147,000 fewer pediatric acute bronchitis cases, 2.67 million fewer cases of pediatric upper respiratory symptoms and 1.87 million fewer cases of pediatric lower respiratory symptoms, and 508 infants' lives would be saved.
"Air pollution and climate change are putting children at risk today," said report author Will Barrett. "The impacts of climate change continue to intensify, and that will just add to the risks that children in the United States face as they're growing up."
The report, published Wednesday, determined that children's lives could be made a lot healthier if all new car shoppers picked zero-emission options by 2035 and people bought only zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles like buses, ambulances and tractor-trailers by 2040, along with a switch of the nation's electric grid to clean and renewable energy by 2035.
Electric vehicles create 3,932 pounds of carbon equivalent per year, compared to 11,435 for gas-powered vehicles, according to calculations from the U.S. Department of Energy.
While battery-powered cars don't emit greenhouse gases from tailpipes, they aren't completely "zero-emission" even if that's their official label. There are still emissions created when the cars are built, when manufacturers create the cars' large batteries and when they charge. Decarbonization of the electric grid is a key component to cleaning up the air.
Traffic is one of the biggest sources of carbon pollution in the country and accounts for 28% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, according to U.S. government data, followed by electricity production at 25%.
Pollution is more dangerous for children since their bodies are still developing and they have small lungs. They tend to take in more air than adults because their breathing is quicker, and as a result, their lungs and bodies are exposed to even more pollution. Kids also tend to spend more time outside than adults typically do, the new report said.
'Good for environmental justice'
Pollution can harm a child's health even before birth. A pregnant person's exposure can cause a baby to be born early or with a low birth weight, studies show.
Premature babies can have significant health problems at birth and throughout their lives. They are at higher risk of breathing difficulties, heart problems, digestive issues, immune system challenges and cognitive issues.
Even if a child is born at full-term, exposure to pollution can lead to respiratory and heart problems; exposure has also been associated with a higher risk of depression, anxiety and even suicide, studies show, for both children and adults.
Globally, 8.8 million people die prematurely because of air pollution every year, studies estimate.
Communities of color tend to live in more polluted areas, regardless of income, and neighborhoods where there are high concentrations of people with limited incomes tend to be more polluted, studies show. That exposure to pollution exacerbates existing health disparities.
"When we investigate this question of what happens to people's health when we switch over to electric vehicles, we find that the majority of the benefits occur in disadvantaged communities. These disadvantaged communities are often people of color, predominantly Black or Hispanic communities," said Dr. Daniel Horton, an assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern. "And so we find not only is the adoption of electric vehicles good for climate change, good for air pollution, but also good for environmental justice."
'To make that transition real'
Although there has been a sharp increase in the number of electric vehicles on the road, according to government numbers, only a fraction of vehicles on the road are electric: a little more than 5% in 2022.
Public health advocates have pushed for more financial incentives to encourage people to buy electric vehicles. As more of them become available as used cars, Horton said, prices are dropping, and that should also help.
The American Lung Association's Barrett said stronger federal policies are also needed to prompt a bigger change to cleaner energy. The Biden administration is expected to announce revamped tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks in March and regulations for power plant emissions in April.
"We do we feel like the pathway we set out for this transition to zero-emission technologies is underway, but we've got a long way to go, and there are some key things that we need to see happen to make that transition real," he said.
The Biden administration has indicated that it may relax strict vehicle emissions rules it proposed last year to give carmakers more time to meet requirements to create more electric vehicles.
The American Lung Association is encouraging the government to create the strongest possible pollution standards.
"We want to make sure that those policies are finalized quickly by the administration to really move the needle and bring pollution down from these very harmful sources," Barrett said.
Contributing: Ella Nilsen and Nathaniel Meyersohn
