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Moultrie, T.A., Dorrington, R.E., Laubscher, R., Groenewald, P., Parry, C.D.H., Matzopoulos, R. and Bradshaw, D. (2021) Unnatural Deaths, Alcohol Bans and Curfews: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment during COVID-19. South African Medical Journal.
https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.2021.v111i9.15813

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Measuring the Social Net Benefits of COVID-19 Restrictions: The Case of Reduced Vehicle Use in a Pollution-Prone Region of Utah

  AUTHORS: Ethan Hartley, Arthur J. Caplan

  KEYWORDS: Social Net Benefits, COVID-19 Restrictions, Mobile-Source Air Pollution

  JOURNAL NAME: Journal of Environmental Protection, Vol.12 No.11, November 24, 2021

  ABSTRACT: A number of natural experiments have recently found that COVID-19 restrictions imposed in nations worldwide are correlated with short-term reductions—in some cases dramatic reductions—in mobile-source air pollutants. Noticeably absent from these studies are estimates of the social net benefits associated with the changes in human behavior underlying the pandemic-induced effects. Using readily available data provided by the state of Utah and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Co-Benefits Risk Assessment Health Impacts Screening and Mapping Tool (COBRA), we find that daily social net benefit was positive during a pandemic-induced shutdown from March to April, 2020 in Utah’s Wasatch Front region solely when COBRA’s “high” health benefit estimate from combined reductions in PM2.5 and NOx concentrations are weighed against the region’s “low” vehicle-trip cost estimate. All other scenarios correspond with negative net benefit estimates, i.e., when high and low benefit estimates of reductions solely in PM2.5 concentrations as well as for combined reductions in PM2.5 and NOx concentrations are weighed against the region’s high vehicle-trip cost estimate. Generally speaking, social net benefits are higher for two of the Wasatch Front’s four counties.