A recent article from the European Society of Cardiology shows loss of life expectancy from air pollution compared to other risk factors
Air pollution is harmful to health and increases the
risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Scientists at the Center of Cardiology of the
University Medical Center Mainz and the Max Planck
Institute of Chemistry have calculated in a new
study that air pollution reduces the life expectancy
of people globally on average more than infectious
diseases or other cardiovascular risk factors, such as
smoking.
“Air pollution exceeds Malaria as a cause of
premature death by a factor of 19 and HIV/AIDS by a
factor of 9, and since the effects on health are so
enormous, and affect the population worldwide,
one could say that our results point to an air
pollution pandemic.”
- Prof. Dr. Jos Lelieveld
|FACT: Australia has the strictest air pollution control standards
2.9 YEARS
Air pollution statistically shorten the lives of
people worldwide by an average of almost 3
years.
Almost 2/3 of deaths caused by air pollution, namely
5.5 million per year, are, according to the study’s
findings, basically preventable, since the majority of
polluted air is produced by the use of fossil fuels. The
researchers also estimate that the average life
expectancy worldwide would increase by just over a
year. If emissions from the use of fossil fuels were to
be eliminated.
Last year, researchers from the University Medical
Center Mainz and the Max Planck Institute of
Chemistry published a similar study on the
consequences of air pollution in Europe. According
to the study, almost 800,000 Europeans die
prematurely every year from diseases caused by air
pollution. Pollution air shortens the life span of
Europeans on average by more than two years.
Read the full study here;
https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cvr/cvaa025/5770885
Download the PDF of this summary here