Imbalanced transfer of trade-related air pollution mortality in China

Revealing the determinants and associated impacts of the transboundary pollution caused by trade is a critical issue when promoting the joint control among regions. This interdisciplinary study utilizes physical, economic and epidemiological methods to explore the anthropogenic PM_2.5 related mortality driven by interprovincial trade within China and its determinants. The results showed that 68% of the mortality flow in China was from the central and north plain area, with 29% occurring within these regions and 39% flowing to other eastern and western provinces. The high death intensity resulting from higher exports of heavily polluted agricultural and heavy industry products dominated the trade surplus of PM_2.5 mortality for the central and northern plains of China; these bring an imbalanced economic return for these regions, with only 43% of the value added generated in interprovincial trade being retained in these regions. Our study provides a more comprehensive picture of how atmospheric pollution deaths were caused by domestic trade within China, which may facilitate the multilateral pollution mitigation actions from an environmentally economic balanced perspective. (letter)