Health co-benefits in mortality avoidance from implementation of the mass rapid transit (MRT) system in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-
Soo Chen Kwan
,
Marko Tainio
Abstract
Introduction: The mass rapid transit (MRT) is the largest transport infrastructure project under the national key economic area (NKEA) in Malaysia. As urban rail is anticipated to be the future spine of public transport network in the Greater Kuala Lumpur city, it is important to mainstream climate change mitigation and public health benefits in the local transport development. This study quantifies the health co-benefits in terms of mortality among the urbanites when the first line of the 150 km MRT system in Kuala Lumpur commences by 2017.
Method: Using comparative health risk assessment, we estimated the potential health co-benefits from the establishment of the MRT system. We estimated the reduced CO2 emissions and air pollution (PM2.5) exposure reduction among the general population from the reduced use of motorized vehicles. Mortality avoided from traffic incidents involving motorcycles and passenger cars, and from increased physical activity from walking while using the MRT system was also estimated.
Results: A total of 363,130 tonnes of CO2 emissions could be reduced annually from the modal shift from cars and motorcycles to the MRT system. Atmospheric PM2.5 concentration could be reduced 0.61 μg/m3 annually (2%). This could avoid a total of 12 deaths, mostly from cardio-respiratory diseases among the city residents. For traffic injuries, 37 deaths could be avoided annually from motorcycle and passenger cars accidents especially among the younger age categories (aged 15–30). One additional death was attributed to pedestrian walking. The additional daily physical activity to access the MRT system could avoid 21 deaths among its riders. Most of the mortality avoided comes from cardiovascular diseases. Overall, a total of 70 deaths could be avoided annually among both the general population and the MRT users in the city.
Conclusion: The implementation of the MRT system in Greater Kuala Lumpur could bring substantial health co-benefits to both the general population and the MRT users mainly from the avoidance of mortality from traffic injuries.
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©2016 by De Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Traditional and emerging environmental hazards in South-East Asia: double-trouble in the 21st century
- A quarter century of the Pacific Basin Consortium: looking back to move forward
- Exposure to Metals
- Arsenic projects in SE Asia
- Lead exposure from battery recycling in Indonesia
- Connecting mercury science to policy: from sources to seafood
- Mercury exposure in the work place and human health: dental amalgam use in dentistry at dental teaching institutions and private dental clinics in selected cities of Pakistan
- Protecting health from metal exposures in drinking water
- Exposure assessment of lead from food and airborne dusts and biomonitoring in pregnant mothers, their fetus and siblings in Karachi, Pakistan and Shimotsuke, Japan
- Mining
- Reconciling PM10 analyses by different sampling methods for Iron King Mine tailings dust
- The “CHILD” framework for the study of artisanal mercury mining communities
- Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas: impact on health and environment
- Hazardous Waste
- Searching bioremediation patents through Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
- Proteomics of Sphingobium indicum B90A for a deeper understanding of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) bioremediation
- Novel industrial wastewater treatment integrated with recovery of water and salt under a zero liquid discharge concept
- Water
- Connecting science with industry: lessons learned transferring a novel plasmonic mercury sensor from the bench to the field
- Pilot-scale UV/H2O2 study for emerging organic contaminants decomposition
- Nanotechnology: a clean and sustainable technology for the degradation of pharmaceuticals present in water and wastewater
- Solar-driven membrane distillation demonstration in Leupp, Arizona
- What works in water supply and sanitation projects in developing countries with EWB-USA
- Natural Disasters and a Changing Environment
- Environmental exposures due to natural disasters
- Changing exposures in a changing world: models for reducing the burden of disease
- Sustainable development through a gendered lens: climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
- Environmental Justice and Human Rights
- Creating healthy and just bioregions
- Worm-free children: an integrated approach to reduction of soil-transmitted helminth infections in Central Java
- Diabetes in Native Americans: elevated risk as a result of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
- Pollution, health and development: the need for a new paradigm
- EcoSystem
- Pacific connections for health, ecosystems and society: new approaches to the land-water-health nexus
- Exposure to e-waste
- E-waste: the growing global problem and next steps
- Global challenges for e-waste management: the societal implications
- E-waste issues in Sri Lanka and the Basel Convention
- E-waste interventions in Ghana
- CALUX bioassay: a cost-effective rapid screening technique for screening dioxins like compounds
- Cancer
- Cancer surveillance and research on environmental contributions to cancer
- Domestic incense use and lung cancer in Asia: a review
- Children
- Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in the South Pacific: how might it be impacting children?
- Children’s environmental health indicators in Australia: are we collecting the right information?
- Community-based efforts in health promotion in indigenous villages on the Thailand-Myanmar border
- Emerging issues
- Bayesian networks in infectious disease eco-epidemiology
- Health co-benefits in mortality avoidance from implementation of the mass rapid transit (MRT) system in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) personal exposure evaluation on mechanics and administrative officers at the motor vehicle testing center at Pulo Gadung, DKI Jakarta
- Life cycle assessment of dairy farms
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Traditional and emerging environmental hazards in South-East Asia: double-trouble in the 21st century
- A quarter century of the Pacific Basin Consortium: looking back to move forward
- Exposure to Metals
- Arsenic projects in SE Asia
- Lead exposure from battery recycling in Indonesia
- Connecting mercury science to policy: from sources to seafood
- Mercury exposure in the work place and human health: dental amalgam use in dentistry at dental teaching institutions and private dental clinics in selected cities of Pakistan
- Protecting health from metal exposures in drinking water
- Exposure assessment of lead from food and airborne dusts and biomonitoring in pregnant mothers, their fetus and siblings in Karachi, Pakistan and Shimotsuke, Japan
- Mining
- Reconciling PM10 analyses by different sampling methods for Iron King Mine tailings dust
- The “CHILD” framework for the study of artisanal mercury mining communities
- Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas: impact on health and environment
- Hazardous Waste
- Searching bioremediation patents through Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
- Proteomics of Sphingobium indicum B90A for a deeper understanding of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) bioremediation
- Novel industrial wastewater treatment integrated with recovery of water and salt under a zero liquid discharge concept
- Water
- Connecting science with industry: lessons learned transferring a novel plasmonic mercury sensor from the bench to the field
- Pilot-scale UV/H2O2 study for emerging organic contaminants decomposition
- Nanotechnology: a clean and sustainable technology for the degradation of pharmaceuticals present in water and wastewater
- Solar-driven membrane distillation demonstration in Leupp, Arizona
- What works in water supply and sanitation projects in developing countries with EWB-USA
- Natural Disasters and a Changing Environment
- Environmental exposures due to natural disasters
- Changing exposures in a changing world: models for reducing the burden of disease
- Sustainable development through a gendered lens: climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
- Environmental Justice and Human Rights
- Creating healthy and just bioregions
- Worm-free children: an integrated approach to reduction of soil-transmitted helminth infections in Central Java
- Diabetes in Native Americans: elevated risk as a result of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
- Pollution, health and development: the need for a new paradigm
- EcoSystem
- Pacific connections for health, ecosystems and society: new approaches to the land-water-health nexus
- Exposure to e-waste
- E-waste: the growing global problem and next steps
- Global challenges for e-waste management: the societal implications
- E-waste issues in Sri Lanka and the Basel Convention
- E-waste interventions in Ghana
- CALUX bioassay: a cost-effective rapid screening technique for screening dioxins like compounds
- Cancer
- Cancer surveillance and research on environmental contributions to cancer
- Domestic incense use and lung cancer in Asia: a review
- Children
- Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in the South Pacific: how might it be impacting children?
- Children’s environmental health indicators in Australia: are we collecting the right information?
- Community-based efforts in health promotion in indigenous villages on the Thailand-Myanmar border
- Emerging issues
- Bayesian networks in infectious disease eco-epidemiology
- Health co-benefits in mortality avoidance from implementation of the mass rapid transit (MRT) system in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) personal exposure evaluation on mechanics and administrative officers at the motor vehicle testing center at Pulo Gadung, DKI Jakarta
- Life cycle assessment of dairy farms
