Some areas of Thailand fare much worse. In the most polluted regions, air pollution is shortening lives by more than four years relative to what it would have been if the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline was met.

“As countries navigate the dual challenges of sustaining economic growth and protecting the environment and public health, the AQLI shows not only the damage caused by pollution but also the enormous gains that can be made with policies to address it,” says Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, who created the Index along with his colleagues at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.

The AQLI finds that in 2016, 87 percent of Thailand’s 68 million people lived in areas where the annual average particulate pollution level exceeded the WHO guideline. Seventy-five percent lived in areas where it exceeded Thailand’s own air quality standard.

In Bangkok, growth in industry and vehicle prevalence led to a 23 percent increase in pollution from 1998 to 2016. Residents there are now seeing their lives cut short by 2.4 years. In Chiang Mai, residents are living 3.6 fewer years than if the WHO guideline was met.

The AQLI is based on a pair of peer-reviewed studies in which Greenstone and his co-authors exploited a unique natural experiment in China. Continue reading at Siam News Network…