We're all for planting more trees. They bring so many good things," said study coauthor Róisín Commane, an atmospheric chemist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "But if we're not careful, we could make air quality worse."
"There is no reason to think that trees don't play a role in what's in the air," said lead author Dandan Wei, of the local Columbia Climate School. "We just didn't have the tools before this to understand this particular aspect."
Asthma and chronic bronchitis were listed as the most vulnerable conditions, according to the new report in Environmental Science & Technology.
Oak trees, which already let out 800 times more isoprene than maples, emit in especially high volume when the city reaches boiling temperatures in the high 90s as well. They make up 37% of city trees while the sweetgums consist of 17%.
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