Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

AIR POLLUTION

Accounting for toxicity

Nature Energy volume 7, pages 124–125 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Air pollution policy is often focused on controlling mass emissions, neglecting the differential health impacts from sources like residential particulate matter. A study now shows that the impacts from residential emissions are significantly higher compared with coal-fired power plants in China when toxicity is considered.

Now, in Nature Energy, Qing Li at Fudan University and colleagues report a large difference in toxicity of inhalable PM emitted from solid-fuel use in the residential sector and CFPPs in China3. Based on field sampling and laboratory analysis in China as well as air-quality simulations, the main conclusion from this work is that the residential sector contributed about 200-fold higher population-weighted toxic-potency-adjusted PM2.5 exposure compared with CFPPs in China.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Tang, L. et al. Nat. Energy 4, 929–938 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Weagle, C. L. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52, 11670–11681 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Qing, Li. et al. Nat. Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00951-1 (2022).

  4. He, G. et al. One Earth 3, 187–194 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. China Dispersed Coal General Management Report 2021 (Institute of Energy, Peking University, 2021); https://energy.pku.edu.cn/docs//2021-11/d584da0a5fd64e149bf7b2458d3c9080.pdf

  6. National Data (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2021); https://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=C01

  7. Household Air Pollution and Health (World Health Organization, 2021); https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health

  8. State of Global Air/2020 (Health Effects Institute, Boston, MA, USA, 2020); https://www.stateofglobalair.org

  9. Conibear, L., Butt, E. W., Knote, C., Arnold, S. R. & Spracklen, D. V. Nat .Commun. 9, 617 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Lacey, F. G., Henze, D. K., Lee, C. J., van Donkelaar, A. & Martin, R. V. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 1269–1274 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Yueming Lucy Qiu

  2. Credit Suisse Economics, Credit Suisse, Hong Kong, China

    Yi David Wang

  3. School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China

    Jiahai Yuan

Authors
  1. Yueming Lucy Qiu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yi David Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jiahai Yuan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yueming Lucy Qiu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Qiu, Y.L., Wang, Y.D. & Yuan, J. Accounting for toxicity. Nat Energy 7, 124–125 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00976-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00976-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing