For the last year, New York City has been working to develop potential regulation of the dirtiest heating oils used in residential and commercial boilers. Policy Integrity has been in close contact with city officials and interested advocacy groups as the rule is being developed to help quantify the potential health benefits and shape a rational regulatory response.
Research Associate, Kevin Cromar, a graduate student at the NYU School of Medicine program on environmental health designed an innovative methodology to calculate the particulate matter emitted by heating oil, based on measurements of ambient nickel concentrations. He found that regulation could achieve hundreds of avoided mortalities, and billions of dollars worth of measurable health benefits.
On the basis of this research, Policy Integrity released Residual Risks, the only comprehensive, quantitative analysis of the health benefits of reducing reliance on dirty residual fuel oil in New York City.