Impacts of Transportation Emissions on the Risk of Mortality: Findings from the Literature and Policy Implications

Final ReportBackground: Exposure to vehicle emissions have been considered a cause of several negative health outcomes including mortality. The existing findings are too inconsistent to drive a well-founded exposure-response function to be fully exploited to curb the negative impacts of transportation systems on public health. In this study, we investigate the association between exposure to air pollution and mortality. We then evaluate how using different air quality methods may result in detecting different health outcomes. Methods: We conduct an analysis of reviewing a representative sample of main published studies that specifically focused on the association between vehicle air pollution and mortality. Results: Our study finds that vehicle air pollution may increase the risk of mortality through a high association. The risk of overall mortality increases by 5% per 10 μg/m3 increase in NO2 concentration, 2% per unit of traffic intensity on the road, and 7% per unit of distance closer to the road. Conclusion: The findings imply the role of exposure to vehicle emissions in increasing risk of mortality. The method used to detect the health outcomes can alter the health finding from positive to null or vice versa and even extensively affect the analysis outcomes. The results suggest the need for establishing indicators to benchmark the performance of air quality methods and emphasize the necessity to integrate public health measures into urban and transportation planning process.U.S. Department of Transportation 69A355174711