Date: 22 March, 2016

Time: 14.00-15.00

Venue: Stockholm Resilience Centre, lobby, (NOTE NEW VENUE). Kräftriket 2, Stockholm. See map.

Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that there is a relationship between exposure to air pollution and respiratory or heart disease. China is the largest emitter of anthropogenic air pollution in the world and in this seminar we investigate potential environmental and health effects of transboundary air pollution traveling across the Pacific Ocean from China to the U.S. This is done by observing impacts of events that affected air pollution in China both positively and negatively, and coupling them to data on levels of particulate matter and micro-level health data in California. The results show statistically significant decreases in California particulate matter levels associated with Chinese New Year, a major holiday in China, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and an increase in particulate matter following sandstorms in China. They also show effects on heart and respiratory diseases in California from these same events. These results have important implications regarding international environmental cooperative policies for transboundary air pollution, which is a global problem.

After the seminar there will be coffee and mingle

Contacts:

Chandra Kiran, the Beijer Institute, Seminar series organiser

Agneta Sundin, the Beijer Institute, Communication officer

Future seminars:

20 April, Xiaojia Bao, Xiamen University

May, Anthony Millner, London School of Economics