Health and environmental consequences of crop residue burning correlated with increasing crop yields midst India’s Green Revolution

Huang，Tao1; Ma，Jianmin1,2; Song，Shijie1; Ling，Zaili3; Macdonald，Robie W.4; Gao，Hong1; Tao，Shu2; Shen，Huizhong5; Zhao，Yuan1; Liu，Xinrui2; Tian，Chongguo6; Li，Yifan7; Jia，Hongliang8; Lian，Lulu1; Mao，Xiaoxuan1

2022-12-01

10.1038/s41612-022-00306-x

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science   Impact Factor & Quartile

2397-3722

2397-3722

The Green Revolution (GR) enhances crop yields significantly that contributes greatly to the social and economic development of many less developed countries. However, the increasing crop yields might rise crop residue biomass burning, leading to adverse environmental and health consequences. We assess the impact of crop residue burning associated with the GR-induced growing crop yields on benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) pollution, a congener of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with strong carcinogenicity. We find a significant increasing trend of BaP emission and contamination from crop residue biomass burning from the mid-1960s to 2010s in India, coinciding with the growing crop yields occurring during the GR. Our results reveal that agricultural BaP emission driven lifetime lung cancer risk (ILCR) in India increased 2.6 times from the onset of GR in the mid-1960s to 2014 and the 57% population in India was exposed to the BaP level higher than the India national standard (1 ng m). We show that the reduction of open crop residue burning during the rice and wheat residue burning period would be a very effective measure to reduce BaP environmental contamination and health risk.

SCI

English

Others

National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China[41877507];National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China[41977357];National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China[42177351];

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

WOS:000877009700001

NATURE PORTFOLIO

2-s2.0-85140887224

Scopus

1.Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control,Gansu Province,Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems stems (Ministry of Education),College of Earth and Environmental Sciences,Lanzhou University,Lanzhou,730000,China
2.Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes,College of Urban and Environmental Sciences,Peking University,Beijing,100871,China
3.College of Agricultural and Forestry Economics & Management,Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics,Lanzhou,730000,China
4.Fisheries and Oceans Canada,Institute of Ocean Sciences,Sidney,V8L 4B2,Canada
5.School of Environmental Science and Engineering,South University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,5180551,China
6.Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation,Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Yantai,264003,China
7.International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances,State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment,Harbin Institute of Technology,Harbin,150090,China
8.College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering,Dalian Maritime University,Dalian,116026,China

Huang，Tao,Ma，Jianmin,Song，Shijie,等. Health and environmental consequences of crop residue burning correlated with increasing crop yields midst India’s Green Revolution[J]. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science,2022,5(1).

Huang，Tao.,Ma，Jianmin.,Song，Shijie.,Ling，Zaili.,Macdonald，Robie W..,...&Mao，Xiaoxuan.(2022).Health and environmental consequences of crop residue burning correlated with increasing crop yields midst India’s Green Revolution.npj Climate and Atmospheric Science,5(1).

Huang，Tao,et al."Health and environmental consequences of crop residue burning correlated with increasing crop yields midst India’s Green Revolution".npj Climate and Atmospheric Science 5.1(2022).