Air pollution limits in US arent low enough to prevent deaths
Source: Bangor Daily News
With the Trump Administration threatening to loosen air pollution controls, a new study is showing that even existing rules are causing tens of thousands of extra deaths in the United States each year.
Researchers used 12 years of data — health records from nearly 61 million Medicare beneficiaries, combined with a massive databank of pollution readings — to link specific air quality levels to death rates.
They found that for every increase of just 10 micrograms in small-particle pollution known as PM2.5, the death rate went up 7.3 percent. That’s the equivalent of 120,000 fatalities among people age 65 and older, lead author Qian Di of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.
For every 10 part-per-billion rise in ozone concentration, the mortality rate rose by 1.1 percent, producing an extra 19,000 deaths just among the elderly.
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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2017/06/28/environment/air-pollution-limits-in-us-arent-low-enough-to-prevent-deaths/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I am certain there are variations by specific locations within the USA.