One in five deaths due to air pollution

From The Age

 

More than 8 million people are estimated to have died from fossil fuel pollution in 2018 – almost double previous estimates – with new research linking it to about one in five deaths worldwide.

Researchers from Harvard University in collaboration with the University of Birmingham and others, found the highest death rate from fossil fuel pollution in China and India. Their study has been published in the journal Environmental Research.

But every country suffers from its impact. In Australia, it represents about 4 per cent of all deaths each year, or about 5700 fatalities.

In China, a quarter of all deaths were caused by fossil fuel pollution (representing 2.3 million people), rising to 30 per cent in India and 35 per cent in Bangladesh – the highest percentage in the study.

For decades scientists have known airborne particles are a danger to public health, but there have been few epidemiological studies to quantify the effects of very high levels of exposure like in India and China.

For this study, researchers intentionally chose to use data from 2012, when the El Nino weather pattern was in a “neutral” phase, and did not affect air pollution levels at the time. If data from another year was used, they said, the estimates of mortality might have been higher or lower.

But the researchers updated the China data for 2018, because of the large cut in fossil fuel pollution in that country after 2012.

The study greatly increases the estimate of numbers killed by air pollution. In comparison, the most recent Global Burden of Disease study, the most comprehensive study on the causes of global mortality, put the total number of deaths for airborne pollution – including from dust, smoke and agricultural burns – at 4.2 million a year.

"Just" 5700 deaths in Australia.  Imagine if a terrorist had killed 5700 people, what drama would ensue!  But pollution?  Nah.  

Air pollution in Beijing