Cleaner transportation could prevent thousands of premature deaths

· News-Medical

A shift to cleaner transportation could prevent more than 3,600 premature deaths in Montreal and Toronto by reducing ultrafine particle pollution, finds a new study led by McGill researchers.

Ultrafine particles (UFPs) are microscopic pollutants produced in large quantities by vehicle exhaust. Because of their small size, they can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream and may contribute to serious health problems such as heart and lung disease.

Marshall Lloyd, lead author, Research Associate in McGill's Department of Epidemiology and BiostatisticsMost Canadians are exposed to UFPs on a daily basis and these pollutants are not currently regulated, despite growing evidence linking them to increased mortality risk."

While air quality regulations have reduced many pollutants, ultrafine particles are not currently regulated, he added.

The researchers modelled how different policies would change UFP levels, drawing on real emission and climate plans in Toronto and Montreal, including targets for electric vehicle adoption. Using established population and health data, they then estimated how those changes could translate into reductions in premature deaths between 2021 and 2040.

  • rapid electric vehicle adoption (reaching about half of all vehicles by 2030 and nearly 100 per cent by 2040)
  • accelerated retirement of older, heavy-duty vehicles, particularly pre‑2007 diesel trucks
  • reduced overall traffic levels

Cleaner air from reduced vehicle emissions would have the greatest impact in neighborhoods with higher proportions of low-income households, immigrants and visible minorities, which are often located near major roads, he added.

Source:

McGill University

Journal reference:

Lloyd, M., et al. (2026). Estimating Reductions in Premature Mortality Attributable to Outdoor Ultrafine Particles with Increasing Prevalence of Electric Vehicles and Other Tailpipe-Related Emission Reduction Scenarios. Environmental Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6c00907. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.6c00907