(February 14, 2016) New
research shows that more than 5.5 million people die prematurely every year due
to household and outdoor air pollution. More than half of deaths occur in two
of the world’s fastest growing economies, China and India.
Power plants, industrial manufacturing, vehicle exhaust and
burning coal and wood all release small particles into the air that are
dangerous to a person’s health. New research, presented today at the 2016
annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS), found that despite efforts to limit future emissions, the number of
premature deaths linked to air pollution will climb over the next two decades
unless more aggressive targets are set.
“Air pollution is the fourth highest risk factor for death
globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease,” said
Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of
Population and Public Health in Vancouver, Canada. “Reducing air pollution is
an incredibly efficient way to improve the health of a population.“
For the AAAS meeting, researchers from Canada, the United
States, China and India assembled estimates of air pollution levels in China
and India and calculated the impact on health.
Their analysis shows that the two countries account for 55
per cent of the deaths caused by air pollution worldwide. About 1.6 million
people died of air pollution in China and 1.4 million died in India in 2013.
In China, burning coal is the biggest contributor to poor
air quality. Qiao Ma, a PhD student at the School of Environment, Tsinghua
University in Beijing, China, found that outdoor air pollution from coal alone
caused an estimated 366,000 deaths in China in 2013.