Health Risks from Air Pollution: Costs of Relaxing Standards

Professor Joel Schwartz is noted for his work on the acute and chronic health effects of fossil fuel air pollution. One of his collaborative studies revealed that exposure to fine combustion particles in the air at concentrations well below current standards are associated with a range of conditions, including dementia, asthma, heart attacks, and lung cancer. The study indicated that the death rate from this pollution is almost 1 in 5 deaths worldwide, about twice the previous mortality estimate.  Research data has shown that the pollution impact falls disproportionately on poorer communities.

Speaker: Dr. Joel Schwartz, Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Professor Schwartz has examined cardiovascular effects of lead exposure in adults, as well as cognitive, auditory and growth effects of lead exposure in children, with gasoline lead as the major source of such exposure in the U.S. His research has examined both acute and chronic exposure effects, including exposure to fine combustion particles in the air at concentrations well below current standards. Documented health effects ranged from intensified respiratory symptoms in patients, to higher hospital admissions, to increased deaths. This research led to the past tightening of the U.S. air quality standards. His work with other researchers on the health effects of ozone exposure has focussed on the cardiovascular effects of air pollution and on factors which modify the body’s response, with some evidence that diabetics patients are more susceptible.