Despite the skyrocketing growth of environmental studies in recent decades about ports and shipping, the local health impacts of ports remain largely under-researched. This article wishes to tackle this lacuna by statistically analyzing data on global shipping flows across nearly 5,000 ports in 35 OECD countries between 2001 and 2018. The different traffic types, from containers to bulks and passengers, are analyzed jointly with data on natural conditions, air pollution, socio-economic features, and public health. Main results show that port regions pollute more than non-port regions on average, while health impacts vary according to the size and specialization of port regions. Three types of port regions are clearly differentiated, of which industrial, intermediate, and metropolitan port regions.