A recent report from the American Lung Association emphasizes the significant health benefits a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) would offer, particularly for children, who are especially susceptible to respiratory conditions. The findings suggest that if all new vehicles sold by 2035 emit zero tailpipe emissions, it could result in 2.7 million fewer asthma attacks in children, alongside a reduction of 147,000 acute bronchitis cases. Moreover, the report predicts 2.67 million fewer instances of upper respiratory symptoms and 1.87 million fewer lower respiratory symptoms among children, as well as 508 fewer infant deaths.
Laura Kate Bender, the national assistant vice president for Healthy Air at the American Lung Association, stressed the importance of focusing on children, stating, “Kids are at greater risk of air pollution, their lungs are still growing.” She shared from her personal experience, “I can say that as a person growing up with asthma, [it] put me in the ER more often than I think my parents would have liked.”
Vehicles with combustion engines are major contributors to climate change, responsible for more than a quarter of global emissions. This has led to global efforts to speed up the adoption of electric vehicles, which significantly reduce atmospheric pollutants. Children, particularly those with a higher risk of respiratory diseases, would greatly benefit from this transition.
Achieving this goal assumes the sale of only electric passenger cars by 2035 and electric heavy-duty vehicles by 2040, alongside a power grid devoid of fossil fuel dependence. Bender highlighted the interconnectedness of EVs and a clean energy grid, noting, “We see the two as inseparable. That’s really how you get to the greatest possible health benefits.”
Despite the steady increase in EV sales, which accounted for just over 8 percent of all vehicle sales in 2023, the transition to an exclusively electric vehicle market faces challenges, including high costs and concerns over charging infrastructure. Additionally, the longevity of gasoline-powered vehicles, which have an average age of 12 years today compared to 9.6 years in 2002, complicates the fleet turnover process.
To meet President Biden’s net zero emissions goal by 2050, the U.S. would likely need to cease the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by approximately 2035, a daunting challenge. This task may become even more strenuous if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decides to decelerate the shift to EV-only sales, a move influenced by automaker and labor union pressures, leading to a recent rollback of stringent EPA regulations originally set to expedite the phasing out of gas-powered cars by 2032.
Nevertheless, the American Lung Association aims to shed light on the health advantages of transitioning to electric vehicles, particularly for the younger generation. Bender expressed hope that the report will act as a catalyst for policy reform, especially in strengthening new vehicle emission standards, concluding, “That would mean that even as automakers continue to make gas-powered vehicles, that they would actually be cleaner. So there are real gains to be made even with the rules on the table.”
