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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 (NO(x)). We quantified the health and economic impacts of extra NO(x) emiss...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hou, Lifang, Zhang, Kai, Luthin, Moira A., Baccarelli, Andrea A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5036724/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27618076
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13090891
Descripción
Sumario: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 (NO(x)). We quantified the health and economic impacts of extra NO(x) 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 NO(x) 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. population.