Errigo, Isabella; Abbott, Benjamin; Reimer, Jessica; Glenn, Jeff; Chaney, Robert; Freeman, Andrew; Frei, Rebecca; Howe, Peter, Mendoza, Daniel; Kelly, Kerry; Summers, Laura; Johnston, James; Carter, Thom; Bratsman, Samuel; Stacey, Audrey; Wilson, Derrek; Lange, Leslie (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Abbott, Benjamin (Life Sciences, Plant and Wildlife Sciences)
Recent medical and economic research has found that air pollution causes much more damage to our health and economy than previously understood. Globally, 16% of all deaths are attributable to air pollution—15 times more than from all wars and other forms of violence. However, translating these research findings into policy and behavior change at local levels remains a major challenge, partially because of mismatch between the spatial scale of the air pollution research (often national or global) and governance frameworks (typically multi-scale from local to regional). Here, we tested the effectiveness of expert assessment as a tool to resolve research-policy mismatch. We distributed a questionnaire to over 80 researchers living in Utah, asking for quantitative estimates of human health and economic costs of air pollution, and recommendations for what policy actions would be most effective at reducing those costs. Expert responses of air pollution costs varied widely, but were consistently higher than recent public health studies, indicating that experts were including a more complete suite of factors, or that they were biased. We discuss the response of Utah policymakers to these results and present a framework of involving local researchers to increase the assimilation of data into decision making.