Cargando…

Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs

Studded tires are used in a number of countries during winter in order to prevent accidents. The use of tire studs is controversial and debated because of human health impacts from increased road particle emissions. The aims of this study are to assess whether the use of tire studs in a Scandinavian...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Furberg, Anna, Arvidsson, Rickard, Molander, Sverker
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121463/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30126166
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081774
_version_ 1783352473846546432
author Furberg, Anna
Arvidsson, Rickard
Molander, Sverker
author_facet Furberg, Anna
Arvidsson, Rickard
Molander, Sverker
author_sort Furberg, Anna
collection PubMed
description Studded tires are used in a number of countries during winter in order to prevent accidents. The use of tire studs is controversial and debated because of human health impacts from increased road particle emissions. The aims of this study are to assess whether the use of tire studs in a Scandinavian studded passenger car actually avoids or causes health impacts from a broader life cycle perspective, and to assess the distribution of these impacts over the life cycle. Life cycle assessment is applied and the disability-adjusted life years indicator is used to quantify the following five types of health impacts: (1) impacts saved in the use phase, (2) particle emissions in the use phase, (3) production system emissions, (4) occupational accidents in the production system, and (5) conflict casualties from revenues of cobalt mining. The results show that the health benefits in the use phase in general are outweighed by the negative impacts during the life cycle. The largest contribution to these negative human health impacts are from use phase particle emissions (67–77%) and occupational accidents during artisanal cobalt mining (8–18%). About 23–33% of the negative impacts occur outside Scandinavia, where the benefits occur. The results inform the current debate and highlight the need for research on alternatives to tire studs with a positive net health balance.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6121463
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-61214632018-09-07 Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs Furberg, Anna Arvidsson, Rickard Molander, Sverker Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Studded tires are used in a number of countries during winter in order to prevent accidents. The use of tire studs is controversial and debated because of human health impacts from increased road particle emissions. The aims of this study are to assess whether the use of tire studs in a Scandinavian studded passenger car actually avoids or causes health impacts from a broader life cycle perspective, and to assess the distribution of these impacts over the life cycle. Life cycle assessment is applied and the disability-adjusted life years indicator is used to quantify the following five types of health impacts: (1) impacts saved in the use phase, (2) particle emissions in the use phase, (3) production system emissions, (4) occupational accidents in the production system, and (5) conflict casualties from revenues of cobalt mining. The results show that the health benefits in the use phase in general are outweighed by the negative impacts during the life cycle. The largest contribution to these negative human health impacts are from use phase particle emissions (67–77%) and occupational accidents during artisanal cobalt mining (8–18%). About 23–33% of the negative impacts occur outside Scandinavia, where the benefits occur. The results inform the current debate and highlight the need for research on alternatives to tire studs with a positive net health balance. MDPI 2018-08-17 2018-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6121463/ /pubmed/30126166 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081774 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Furberg, Anna
Arvidsson, Rickard
Molander, Sverker
Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs
title Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs
title_full Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs
title_fullStr Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs
title_full_unstemmed Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs
title_short Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs
title_sort live and let die? life cycle human health impacts from the use of tire studs
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121463/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30126166
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081774
work_keys_str_mv AT furberganna liveandletdielifecyclehumanhealthimpactsfromtheuseoftirestuds
AT arvidssonrickard liveandletdielifecyclehumanhealthimpactsfromtheuseoftirestuds
AT molandersverker liveandletdielifecyclehumanhealthimpactsfromtheuseoftirestuds