The Impact of Car Pollution on Infant and Child Health: Evidence from Emissions Cheating
中文摘要
2008年，大众汽车推出新一代“清洁柴油”汽车，并向具有环保意识的美国消费者大力营销。公众并不知情的是，这些汽车完全谈不上清洁，其污染物排放量最高可达同类汽油车的150倍。我们将2008年至2015年间这些排放作弊柴油汽车在美国各地的推广视为一项自然实验，以考察中等程度的汽车污染对普通人群中婴幼儿与儿童健康的影响。利用全量车辆登记数据，我们发现，每1000辆汽车中每增加1辆排放作弊柴油车，$\mathrm{PM_{2.5}}$、$\mathrm{PM_{10}}$和臭氧浓度分别上升2%、2.2%和1.3%，低出生体重率和婴儿死亡率则分别上升1.9%和1.7%。儿童急性哮喘发作方面也发现了类似的影响。这些健康影响出现在所有污染水平上，并遍及各个社会经济阶层。
Abstract
Abstract In 2008, Volkswagen introduced a new generation of “Clean Diesel” cars and heavily marketed them to environmentally conscious US consumers. Unknown to the public, these cars were anything but clean, emitting pollutants up to 150 times the level of comparable gas-fuelled cars. We study the rollout of these emissions-cheating diesel cars across the United States from 2008 to 2015 as a natural experiment to examine the impact of moderate levels of car pollution on infant and child health in the general population. Using the universe of vehicle registrations, we find that an additional cheating diesel car per 1,000 cars increases $\mathrm{PM_{2.5}}$, $\mathrm{PM_{10}}$, and ozone by 2, 2.2, and 1.3$\%$, respectively, while the low birth weight rate and infant mortality rate increase by 1.9 and 1.7$\%$, respectively. Similar impacts are found for acute asthma attacks in children. These health impacts occur at all pollution levels and across the socioeconomic spectrum.