California Air Resources Board

Principal Investigator/Author: Miriam Marlier

Contractor: University of California, Los Angeles

Contract Number: 23RD005

Project Status: Active

Relevant CARB Programs: AB 32 Climate Change Scoping Plan

Topic Areas: Environmental Justice, Air Pollution Exposure, People at Risk, exposure impacts, health analysis, Health Effects of Air Pollution, Health & Air Pollution, cumulative impacts, Wildfire Smoke & Health, racial equity, Health Risk Assessment, Particulate Matter (PM), PM2.5, Wildfires, Smoke, Climate Change

Research Summary:

Although often examined individually, multiple climate stressors, such as wildfires, air pollution and extreme heat, can simultaneously affect California populations. Also combined exposures can have interactive impacts and have the potential to cause greater health harms than individual exposures. Exposure to multiple climate stressors may make health conditions for the exposed individuals and communities worse and are known to disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. but researchers have not thoroughly evaluated these effects. The objective of this project is to understand the combined effect of multiple climate stressors and the variability seen across vulnerable communities in different regions of California. The Contractor will review the literature on the impacts of individual and combined climate stressors on health outcomes and will map regional variations in exposures to climate stressors across California over the past fifteen years, with a particular focus on heat, air pollution, wildfires, and precipitation extremes. These exposures will be linked to multiple health outcomes to quantify health impacts and health care costs across the life course of different populations. The Contractor will investigate how social and environmental inequalities in vulnerable groups may increase the impacts of climate-related health concerns. This work will support CARB in quantifying comprehensive health co-benefits of actions to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions and identify pathways to protect vulnerable populations throughout the State.

Keywords: climate change, cumulative impacts, wildfires, air pollution, heat, drought, health estimates, social determinants, climate vulnerability