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The impact of air pollution on petcare utilization

Deschenes, Olivier, Jarvis, Stephen ORCID: 0000-0001-9039-3407, Jha, Akshaya and Radford, Alan D (2024) The impact of air pollution on petcare utilization. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Papers (412). Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

There is a large literature documenting the adverse impacts of air pollution on human health. In contrast, there is a paucity of research studying the effects of air pollution on animal health. We fill this gap, utilizing five years of data on over seven million visits to veterinary practices across the United Kingdom. Leveraging within-city variation in daily monitor-measured air pollution levels, we find that increases in fine particulate matter (i.e., PM2.5) lead to significant increases in the number of vet visits for both cats and dogs. In aggregate, these estimates indicate that reducing ambient PM2.5 levels to a maximum of 5µg/m3 as recommended by the World Health Organization would result in eighty thousand fewer vet visits each year (a 0.4% reduction).

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL: https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publicatio...
Additional Information: © 2024 The Author(s)
Divisions: Geography and Environment
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Q Science > QL Zoology
JEL classification: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I0 - General > I00 - General
Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q51 - Valuation of Environmental Effects
Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q53 - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q57 - Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity Conservation; Bioeconomics
Date Deposited: 23 Jun 2025 13:12
Last Modified: 23 Jun 2025 23:15
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128526

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