Modeling the health benefits of state-specific zero-emissions appliance standards in the United States

In several US states, policymakers are considering regulations that would force households to swap gas stoves and furnaces for electric appliances to cut both climate emissions and local air pollution. This project will model the health benefits of those proposed rules before they are finalised. The gap is practical: state regulators need credible, localised numbers on how many asthma attacks, heart attacks, or premature deaths would be avoided if combustion appliances were phased out. Without that evidence, policy debates stay abstract. The researchers will use a “regulatory grade” air-quality and health-impact platform—the same tool the US Environmental Protection Agency trusts for federal rulemaking—to produce high-resolution estimates for priority states. If the modelling succeeds, state air agencies and public-health officials will have concrete, defensible data to include in policy proposals and public comment dockets. That could accelerate adoption of zero-emission appliance standards, directly reducing the nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter that leak from gas burners indoors and out. The work does not invent new science; it applies established atmospheric and health models to a live regulatory window, giving decision-makers numbers they can use now.