In the News
February 11, 2019
How much longer could you expect to live if you breathed clean air? If you’re in north-east China then it could be three or more years, according to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), which was launched last month in Beijing by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).
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The AQLI is based on two pieces of research that found life expectancy drops by 0.98 years for every increase of 10 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre.
The index demonstrates the value of China’s success in reducing air pollution since 2013. The 12% drop in PM2.5 levels between 2013 and 2016 means that people in China can expect to live an average six months longer. Michael Greenstone, director of EPIC, calls this success huge and unprecedented.
Statistics show that Tianjin, one of China’s three most polluted cities in 2013, saw a drop of 14% in PM2.5 by 2016. If that improvement is sustained, the life expectancy of the city’s 13 million residents will increase by 1.2 years. Henan saw an even greater improvement over the same period, a fall in PM2.5 levels of 20%, equivalent to 1.3 years of extra life. Researchers found that if PM2.5 levels met the World Health Organization’s target, the average life expectancy would increase by 2.9 years.