• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, August 22, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

New model predicts how ground shipping will affect future human health, environment

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 11, 2019
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The trucks and trains that transport goods across the United States emit gases and particles that threaten human health and the environment. A University of Illinois-led project developed a new model that predicts through 2050 the impact of different environmental policies on human mortality rates and short- and long-term climate change caused by particulate and greenhouse gas emissions.

The findings are reported in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Greenhouse gas and some particulate matter emissions cause the atmosphere to heat up, but at different rates, said Tami Bond, a civil and environmental engineering professor who led the study with graduate student Liang Liu. “Particulate matter washes out of the atmosphere quickly, making its effect on climate short-lived – unlike greenhouse gases that stay in the atmosphere for decades. Particulate matter has the added drawback of causing inhalation-related diseases,” she said.

Civil and environmental engineering professor Yanfeng Ouyang and urban and regional planning professor Bumsoo Lee collaborated to make the modeled projections possible, along with researchers from the University of Washington, Pennsylvania State University, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory.

The researchers used what they call a “system of systems” approach to model how the increased volume of shipping, mode of transport, population density and environmental policies will factor into the future health and climate impacts of land freight. The model is also set up to identify which scenarios are most harmful to the climate and which are most detrimental to human health.

“Many studies use models of single systems,” Bond said. “For example, trucks on roads, or how people use different goods as the economy grows, or how cities spread as their population increases. These systems all affect each other, so we had to connect them and see how they worked together.”

A carbon tax, which places a value on greenhouse gases emitted, could entice shippers to switch to more efficient rail transport. The models indicate this could lead to a 24 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over business as usual, the greatest reduction of all scenarios modeled, the study reports.

The researchers found that enforcing truck fleet maintenance was an effective way to reduce particulate emissions, cutting the projected mortality rate by about one-third by 2050. The number of misfit, poorly maintained trucks on the road is uncertain, but that attention to overall performance is an important factor in maintaining health, Bond said.
The researchers also examined the effect of changing population density in cities.

According to the study, increasing urban compactness could reduce freight activity but increase human exposure to particulate pollution. This scenario offers a slight improvement in health benefits over the current urban sprawl trend.
However, the answer is not as easy as simply enforcing new environmental policies, Bond said.

“Yes, environmental policy changes could push us toward cleaner, more efficient modes of land transport or more urban compactness, but we have to think ahead and start building up the infrastructure that supports those changes now,” she said. “For example, when petroleum prices spiked about 10 years ago, shippers wanted to switch from trucks to rail, but the capacity was really insufficient.”

Bond said there are still many scenarios to explore with the new model, including the effects of declining or improved infrastructure and increased traffic congestion. “Our model allows for a lot of flexibility, and this type of ‘system of systems’ approach should be routine when investigating policy change,” she said.

###

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory supported this research.

Editor’s notes:

To reach Tami Bond, email [email protected].

The paper “Health and climate impacts of future United States land freight modelled with global-to-urban models” is available from the U. of I. News Bureau.

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-019-0224-3

Media Contact
Lois Yoksoulian
[email protected]
217-244-2788

Original Source

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/749939

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0224-3

Tags: Civil EngineeringClimate ChangeEnvironmental HealthIndustrial Engineering/ChemistryPollution/RemediationSocioeconomicsTechnology/Engineering/Computer ScienceUrbanization
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Ahead of Print: The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Tips – August 22, 2025

August 22, 2025
Childhood Obesity Linked to Adult Gallstones, Shared Genes

Childhood Obesity Linked to Adult Gallstones, Shared Genes

August 22, 2025

Biomimetic Magnetobots Revolutionize Pneumonia Treatment

August 22, 2025

ERBB3 Drives Ferroptosis by Altering Lipids in Cancer

August 22, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    141 shares
    Share 56 Tweet 35
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    114 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    81 shares
    Share 32 Tweet 20
  • Modified DASH Diet Reduces Blood Sugar Levels in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes, Clinical Trial Finds

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Study Finds Speed Isn’t Everything in Covalent Inhibitor Drug Development

Shaping the Future of Dysphagia Diets Through 3D Printing Innovations

Transformative Nodes Set to Revolutionize Quantum Network Technology

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.