Community-level air quality and health implications of sustainable aviation fuels adoption: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) are proposed solutions for reducing emissions and improving sustainability as compared to conventional aviation fuels (CAFs). While CAF emissions are well characterized, evidence on SAF emissions and their implications for air quality and community health has only emerged in the past decade.

OBJECTIVE

Conduct a scoping review to systematically assess existing evidence on how SAF-related emission changes translate to community-level exposures and potential health impacts.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed studies published from January 2010 to September 2025 that evaluated SAF-related emission changes, exposure-relevant pollutants, and health-related outcomes.

RESULTS

Findings indicate that SAFs reduce particulate matter (PM), with the greatest benefits during low-thrust operations (idling, taxiing, landing) and produce less cytotoxic emissions than CAFs. Key gaps remain, including limited data on volatile PM, few real-world linkages between emissions and community exposures, and limited evidence on community health outcomes. Consequently, the public health co-benefits of SAF adoption remain uncertain. Future research should prioritize real-world SAF evaluations and integrated exposure and health assessments to clarify community-level benefits.

SIGNIFICANCE: This scoping review provides the first public health-focused synthesis of evidence on SAF adoption, identifying potential air quality benefits while underscoring key gaps in exposure and community health research.

IMPACT STATEMENT: Research on SAF emissions is growing, but the health co-benefits of SAF adoption are rarely investigated. Understanding the potential benefits and current gaps in research from a public health perspective is essential in guiding research direction as well as informing policy discourse. This scoping review serves as an initial step toward consolidating existing evidence and highlighting key areas for further investigation.