Multi-health effects of clean residential heating: Evidences from rural China's coal-to-gas/electricity project

Solid fuel combustion is widely recognized as a major cause of air pollution and consequently premature deaths, while the changes in health risks associated with switching from fossil fuel to clean energy for heating remains unclear. This study filled in this research gap by identifying whether clean residential heating helps to mitigate public health risks, which aspects of health risks could be mitigated, and who would benefit from such transition. The nonlinear DID estimates showed that individuals using gas/electricity for heating had a significantly better self-reported health status. Also a relatively lower average risk of chronic lung diseases (−1.4 %) and asthma (−1.3 %), but the lower risk of chronic lung diseases was observed only for the elderly (−2.8 %) and men (−3.0 %), while the reduction in the risk of asthma was observed only for middle-aged adults (−1.1 %) and women (−2.2 %). The changes in the risks of heart diseases and stroke were not significant as expected. The findings added two new insights into our previous knowledge about the health effects of HAP exposure from fuel combustion. First, the mitigation effect of clean heating on the risk of respiratory disease is more obvious than that of cardiovascular diseases. Second, the elderly and women do not seem to experience more health benefits from clean heating.