More electric vehicles on the road could be the key to improving our physical and mental health, according to one medical expert.
Dr. Manasi Kumar from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine sat down with BBC to talk about the health impacts of traffic.
While pollution from exhaust pipes is linked to a number of maladies, including respiratory symptoms and heart attacks, "Noise pollution is also something that has been under-appreciated," Kumar told the publication, explaining that in larger cities there is constant auditory and visual stimulation bombarding residents, which can lead to worsening mental health outcomes. She adds that perinatal women are likely to have children with lower birth weights when exposed to loud noise and that noise pollution can disrupt cognitive and emotional processes in young kids.
Noise pollution has also been linked to hearing loss, tinnitus, and hypersensitivity to sound and can exacerbate cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, sleep disturbances, stress, memory impairment, attention deficits, and childhood learning delays, according to Harvard Medicine magazine. Plus, at least one million healthy life years are lost annually from traffic-related noise in Western Europe alone, per the World Health Organization.
The good news is that electric vehicles are much quieter — and EV sales have steadily climbed over the last decade, with around 40 million now on roads across the globe, according to the International Energy Agency. In fact, EV sales climbed by 3.5 million from 2022 to 2023, representing a 35% year-on-year increase.
This is partially because a number of more affordable EV options entered the market. For instance, Chinese automaker BYD has introduced a budget model that sells for about $10,000 in China. Though not yet available in the United States, it could eventually sell for closer to $21,000. Meanwhile, in late 2023, Chevrolet announced that the nation's "most affordable EV," the Bolt, would return to dealerships.
As the world continues toward an electric future, "We are looking at a cleaner environment where nobody is inhaling vehicular fumes," Kumar told BBC. "It will be a population level enhancement of health."
Tim Lenton, a professor at the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, added, "Wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles is going to help mental health because it's going to produce cleaner air and less noise in cities."
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