Air Pollution Kills More than 3 Million People Globally Every Year

[Eugene]

Source: LiveScience

Air Pollution Kills More than 3 Million People Globally Every Year

by Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor | September 16, 2015 01:00pm ET

Outdoor air pollution may lead to more than 3 million premature deaths globally per year, according to a new study. About 75 percent of those deaths occur in Asia, the study found.

Air pollutants such as ozone and tiny particles of toxins are linked with heart disease, lung disease and other serious afflictions that have long-term impacts on human health.

"Strokes and heart attacks are responsible for nearly 75 percent of air pollution-related mortality," said the lead author of the study, Jos Lelieveld, an atmospheric scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany. A "little over 25 percent is related to respiratory disease and lung cancer."

Calculating the effects of outdoor air pollution on a global scale is challenging. One reason is that air quality is not monitored in some regions, and another is that the toxicity of the particles called "fine particulate matter" can vary greatly depending on their source.

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Read more: http://www.livescience.com/52189-air-pollution-kills-millions-people-yearly.html


Source: Associated Press

Air pollution kills 3.3 million a year globally, but much of it traced to farms, study says

Associated Press Sept. 16, 2015 | 1:03 p.m. EDT
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Air pollution is killing 3.3 million people a year worldwide, according to a new study that includes this surprise: Farming plays a large role in smog and soot deaths in industrial nations.

Scientists in Germany, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Harvard University calculated the most detailed estimates yet of the toll of air pollution, looking at what caused it. The study also projects that if trends don't change, the yearly death total will double to about 6.6 billion a year by 2050.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, used health statistics and computer models. About three quarters of the deaths are from strokes and heart attacks, said lead author Jos Lelieveld at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany.

The findings are similar to other less detailed pollution death estimates, outside experts said.

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Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/science/news/articles/2015/09/16/study-air-pollution-kills-33-million-worldwide-may-double

[yeoman6987]

1. Asian deaths having majority doesn't shock me

In Korea I had to wear a mask part of the year as the sand storms were brutal. It came from China but not sure that has anything to do with pollution or just the desert in China. Either way horrible.

[OnlinePoker]

2. If sand can make it from China, so can all the other toxic materials.

A lot of the surface melt in the arctic each year is caused by black soot particles from Asia falling on the surface of the snow and ice and then absorbing the sunlight to heat and melt it.

[yeoman6987]

3. True. It is a problem for sure.