The global environment has changed rapidly since the Industrial Revolution. Human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases have warmed our earth, leading to more climate extremes. Human activities have also caused air pollution and, thus, worse air quality. Warmer climates and polluted air pose severe risks to human health. This paper focuses on temperature and air pollution as the primary environmental factors and studies their relationship with mortality across different ethnicity and age groups in the U.S. from 2001 to 2021. The main research methods employed in this paper are correlation analysis and least-square regressions. This paper finds that, on average, environmental factors are moderately and positively related to total deaths at a statistically significant level. Such a positive relationship still holds when I further investigate how the environment is associated with mortality by each individual cause. Moreover, heterogeneity in the relationship is identified among different races. In particular, temperature seems to have a larger impact on the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Black populations. At the same time, air pollution is observed to have a very strong association with the mortality of the Asian population, Pacific Islanders, and Hawaiian Natives. Finally, age disparities are not that significant. One finding worth pointing out is that children and teenagers (Age 1-14) appear to be more susceptible to air pollution than other age groups.
| Published in | Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 12, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12 |
| Page(s) | 9-17 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Environmental Factors, Temperature, Air Quality, Mortality, Heterogeneity, Disparity
| [1] | NASA. (2023a). World of change: Global temperatures. NASA. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/global-temperatures#:~:text=According%20to%20an%20ongoing%20temperature,1.9%C2%B0%20Fahrenheit)%20since%201880 |
| [2] | NASA. (2023b). The effects of climate change. NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/ |
| [3] | Patz, J. A., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Holloway, T., & Foley, J. A. (2005). Impact of regional climate change on human health. Nature, 438 (7066), 310–317. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04188 |
| [4] | Deschenes, O., Greenstone, M., & Guryan, J. (2009). Climate change and birth weight. American Economic Review, 99 (2), 211–217. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.99.2.211 |
| [5] | Beatty, T. K. M., & Shimshack, J. P. (2014). Air pollution and children’s respiratory health: A cohort analysis. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 67 (1), 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2013.10.002 |
| [6] | Manoj, M. G., Satheesh Kumar, M. K., Valsaraj, K. T., Sivan, C., & Vijayan, S. K. (2020). Potential link between compromised air quality and transmission of the novel corona virus (SARS-COV-2) in affected areas. Environmental Research, 190, 110001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.110001 |
| [7] | Obradovich, N., Migliorini, R., Paulus, M. P., & Rahwan, I. (2018). Empirical evidence of mental health risks posed by climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (43), 10953–10958. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1801528115 |
| [8] | Carleton, T. A. (2017). Crop-damaging temperatures increase suicide rates in India. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114 (33), 8746–8751. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1701354114 |
| [9] | Zhang, X., Zhang, X., & Chen, X. (2015). Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect subjective well-being? SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2655352 |
| [10] | Braveman, P. A., Egerter, S. A., & Mockenhaupt, R. E. (2011). Broadening the focusthe need to address the social determinants of health. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 40 (1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2010.10.002 |
| [11] | Ward, E., Jemal, A., Cokkinides, V., Singh, G. K., Cardinez, C., Ghafoor, A., & Thun, M. (2004). Cancer disparities by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 54 (2), 78–93. https://doi.org/10.3322/canjclin.54.2.78 |
| [12] | Harper, M. A., Espeland, M. A., Dugan, E., Meyer, R., Lane, K., & Williams, S. (2004). Racial disparity in pregnancy-related mortality following a live birth outcome. Annals of Epidemiology, 14 (4), 274–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1047-2797(03)00128-5 |
| [13] | CDC WONDER. (2023). Multiple cause of death data on CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd.html |
| [14] | NOAA National Centers for Environmental information. (2023). Statewide time series: Climate at a glance. Statewide Time Series | Climate at a Glance | National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series |
| [15] | EPA. (n.d.). Air Data: Air Quality Data Collected at Outdoor Monitors Across the US. https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data |
APA Style
Ju, A. (2024). Heterogenous Association Between Mortality and Environmental Factors. Science Journal of Public Health, 12(1), 9-17. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12
ACS Style
Ju, A. Heterogenous Association Between Mortality and Environmental Factors. Sci. J. Public Health 2024, 12(1), 9-17. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12
AMA Style
Ju A. Heterogenous Association Between Mortality and Environmental Factors. Sci J Public Health. 2024;12(1):9-17. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12,
author = {Andrew Ju},
title = {Heterogenous Association Between Mortality and Environmental Factors},
journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {9-17},
doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20241201.12},
abstract = {The global environment has changed rapidly since the Industrial Revolution. Human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases have warmed our earth, leading to more climate extremes. Human activities have also caused air pollution and, thus, worse air quality. Warmer climates and polluted air pose severe risks to human health. This paper focuses on temperature and air pollution as the primary environmental factors and studies their relationship with mortality across different ethnicity and age groups in the U.S. from 2001 to 2021. The main research methods employed in this paper are correlation analysis and least-square regressions. This paper finds that, on average, environmental factors are moderately and positively related to total deaths at a statistically significant level. Such a positive relationship still holds when I further investigate how the environment is associated with mortality by each individual cause. Moreover, heterogeneity in the relationship is identified among different races. In particular, temperature seems to have a larger impact on the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Black populations. At the same time, air pollution is observed to have a very strong association with the mortality of the Asian population, Pacific Islanders, and Hawaiian Natives. Finally, age disparities are not that significant. One finding worth pointing out is that children and teenagers (Age 1-14) appear to be more susceptible to air pollution than other age groups.
},
year = {2024}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Heterogenous Association Between Mortality and Environmental Factors AU - Andrew Ju Y1 - 2024/03/13 PY - 2024 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12 DO - 10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12 T2 - Science Journal of Public Health JF - Science Journal of Public Health JO - Science Journal of Public Health SP - 9 EP - 17 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-7950 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241201.12 AB - The global environment has changed rapidly since the Industrial Revolution. Human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases have warmed our earth, leading to more climate extremes. Human activities have also caused air pollution and, thus, worse air quality. Warmer climates and polluted air pose severe risks to human health. This paper focuses on temperature and air pollution as the primary environmental factors and studies their relationship with mortality across different ethnicity and age groups in the U.S. from 2001 to 2021. The main research methods employed in this paper are correlation analysis and least-square regressions. This paper finds that, on average, environmental factors are moderately and positively related to total deaths at a statistically significant level. Such a positive relationship still holds when I further investigate how the environment is associated with mortality by each individual cause. Moreover, heterogeneity in the relationship is identified among different races. In particular, temperature seems to have a larger impact on the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Black populations. At the same time, air pollution is observed to have a very strong association with the mortality of the Asian population, Pacific Islanders, and Hawaiian Natives. Finally, age disparities are not that significant. One finding worth pointing out is that children and teenagers (Age 1-14) appear to be more susceptible to air pollution than other age groups. VL - 12 IS - 1 ER -
Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, United States
