In the News
August 29, 2024
The average person would add almost two years to their life expectancy if the world permanently cut fine particle pollution to meet safety standards, according to a new study.
Pollution caused by fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, includes a variety of chemicals and materials that can get deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream.
It remains the “world’s greatest external risk to human health,” according to the authors of the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) study, conducted by the Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) at the University of Chicago and published on Wednesday.
PM2.5, which is commonly produced by vehicle exhausts, burning of fossil fuels and industrial processes, has an impact on life expectancy comparable to that of smoking, 4.4 times that of high alcohol use, and 5.8 times that of transport injuries like car crashes and unsafe water, it says.
The EPIC researchers who analysed the data from 2022 conclude that meeting World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on particulate matter would save a combined 14.9 billion life-years globally, or 1.9 per person.
However, the report also highlights huge inequalities in air quality between the world’s most and least impacted countries.
South Asia remains the world’s most polluted region, with residents breathing air that is almost 8.5 times more polluted than what the WHO has deemed safe. With the right environmental policies, people living in this region could see 3.6 years added onto their lives.
“While air pollution remains a global problem, its largest impacts are concentrated in a relatively small number of countries – cutting lives short several years in some places and even more than 6 years in some regions,” said Prof. Michael Greenstone, the EPIC’s director.
“All too often, high pollution concentrations reflect low ambition in setting policy or a failure to successfully enforce existing policies,” he added.
“As countries balance their economic, health, and environmental goals, the AQLI will continue to shine a light on the longer lives that air pollution reductions deliver.”