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| Tue, 3rd Mar 2020 13:37:00 |
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Outdoor air pollution cuts three years from human lifespan – study |
Humans are missing out on almost three years of life expectancy on average because of outdoor air pollution, researchers have found.
However, the study reveals more than a year of life expectancy could be clawed back if fossil fuel emissions are cut to zero, while if all controllable air pollution is cut – a category that does not include particles from natural wildfires or wind-born dust – global life expectancy could rise by more than 20 months.
"This corroborates that fossil fuel-generated air pollution qualifies as a major global health risk factor by itself," the authors write.
The study builds on the team's previous research that confirmed about 8.8m early deaths a year worldwide, twice the figure from prior estimates, are caused by outdoor air pollution, with the new work examining the issue both for the world as a whole, and in detail for particular regions and countries.
"The loss of life expectancy from air pollution is much higher than many other risk factors, and even higher than smoking," said co-author Prof Jos Lelieveld of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. "That was quite unexpected, I must say."
As with the team's previous work, the new study draws on a recently developed model of the impact of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 on the body, as well as a model for the impact of ozone, levels of exposure to these pollutants, and population and mortality figures for 2015.
From this data, the team calculated the proportion of early deaths that could be attributed to outdoor air pollution across six categories, including unspecified non-communicable diseases – a category that encompasses conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
The results reveal that, globally, 2.9 years of life expectancy on average are lost because of outdoor air pollution – a bigger toll than tobacco smoking (2.2 years lost), violence (0.3 years lost), HIV/Aids (0.7 years lost) and diseases spread by parasites and other vectors (0.6 years lost).
Should avoidable outdoor air pollution be cut, the team adds, more than 5.5m early deaths globally could be avoided every year.
However, there are variations between regions and countries: such a measure would save 2.4m early deaths a year in east Asia and regain three out of the 3.9 years of life expectancy lost because of outdoor air pollution. However, in Africa only 230,000 early deaths a year, and just over eight months of the 3.1 years of life expectancy lost, would be saved. In Australia the gains would be even smaller.
Read original full article
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