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IOP Publishing, Environmental Research Letters, 12(17), p. 124014, 2022

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aca2bc

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Pavement resurfacing and supply chains are significant contributors to PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure from road transportation: evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area

Journal article published in 2022 by Fiona Greer ORCID, Ahmad Bin Thaneya ORCID, Joshua S. Apte ORCID, Arpad Horvath ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Green circle
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Green circle
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Green circle
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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Abstract There are hundreds of millions of kilometers of paved roads and many people live in proximity. Pollution from road transportation is a well-documented problem potentially leading to chronic health impacts. However, research on the raw material production, construction, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life phases of paved roads, and corresponding supply chains, is generally limited to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. No previous research efforts on the life-cycle stages of pavements and road operation connect pollutant emission inventories to intake of inhaled pollutants and resulting damages to exposed populations. We have developed a first-of-its-kind model quantifying human exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) due to emissions from routine pavement resurfacing and vehicle operation. We utilize the Intervention Model Pollution Source-Receptor Matrix to calculate marginal changes in ground-level PM2.5 concentrations and resulting exposure intake from a spatially resolved primary and secondary PM2.5 emission precursors inventory. Under a scenario of annual road-resurfacing practices within the San Francisco Bay Area in California (population: 7.5 million), resurfacing activities, material production and delivery (i.e. cement, concrete, aggregate, asphalt, bitumen), and fuel (i.e. gasoline, diesel) supply chains contribute almost 65% to the annual PM2.5 intake from all the sources included in the study domain (the remaining 35% being due to on-road tailpipe emissions). Exposure damages range from $170 to $190 million (2019 USD). Complete electrification of on-road mobile sources would reduce annual intake by 64%, but a sizable portion would remain from material supply chains, construction activities, and brake and tire wear. Future mitigation policies should be enacted equitably. Results show that people of color experience higher-than-average PM2.5 exposure disparities from the emission sources included in the study, particularly from material production.