Health
From BioenergyWiki
Information about biofuels and bioenergy and health.
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Resources/Reports
- Climate change and health costs of air emissions from biofuels and gasoline by Jason Hill, et al. December 2008. The report analyzes the environmental impacts of energy use on society. It also discusses the benefits, including health costs and GHG reduction, of shifting from gasoline to cellulosic ethanol production.
Events
- 16 June 2009, Washington, DC, United States: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Environmental Change and Security Program event: Healthy Solutions to Climate Change Presentation and discussion with Dr. Paul Epstein, Associate Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School on the potential unintended health and environmental consequences of various alternative energy options. (Themes: bioenergy, public health, renewable energy)
News
- The coming of biofuels: Study shows reducing gasoline emissions will benefit human health, 28 May 2009 by e! Science News: "While the focus of a shift from gasoline to biofuels has been on global warming, such a shift could also impact human health."
- "A grant from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) has produced a novel and comprehensive "Life Cycle Impact Assessment" to measure the benefits on human health that might result from a switch to biofuels."
- "...the annual health damages avoided in the U.S. with 10-percent less gasoline-run motor vehicle emissions ranges from about 5,000 to 20,000 DALY [disability adjusted life years], with most of the damage resulting from primary fine particle emissions".
- "Large urban regions...suffer disproportionate health damage as a result of benzene emissions at service stations and during the transporting by truck of gasoline to service stations".
- Impacts "on human health should be a prime consideration in future fuel policy decisions."
- Cellulosic Ethanol May Benefit Human Health And Help Slow Climate Change, 3 February 2009 by ScienceDaily: "Filling our fuel tanks with cellulosic ethanol instead of gasoline or corn-based ethanol may be even better for our health and the environment than previously recognized, according to new research from the University of Minnesota."
- "The study finds that cellulosic ethanol has fewer negative effects on human health because it emits smaller amounts of fine particulate matter, an especially harmful component of air pollution."
- "The study is the first to estimate the economic costs to human health and well-being from gasoline, corn-based ethanol and cellulosic ethanol made from biomass. The authors found that depending on the materials and technology used in production, cellulosic ethanol's environmental and health costs are less than half the costs of gasoline, while corn-based ethanol's costs range from roughly equal to about double that of gasoline."[1]
- See the Open Access study, "Climate change and health costs of air emissions from biofuels and gasoline" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Victims of Biofuel: Nicaraguan Communities Affected by IFC-Funded Ethanol Plant File Complaint, 1 April 2008 press release by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL): "Over 700 community members and ex-sugarcane workers from the Pacific coast of Nicaragua filed a complaint yesterday with the International Finance Corporation for injuries to their health and environment caused by the operations of Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited (NSEL). NSEL received a $55 million loan from the IFC in 2006 to increase its sugarcane production and to fund the construction of an ethanol plant. The complaint (PDF file)...presents evidence that NSEL activities violated these standards."
References
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