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Air pollution takes 2 years off average global life expectancy, more than smoking or alcohol [1]

['Catherine Clifford', 'In Catclifford']

Date: 2022-06-14

The Air Quality Life Index, or AQLI, finds that taken together, air pollution takes a collective 17 billion years of life, and reducing air pollution to meet international health guidelines would increase the global average life expectancy from roughly 72 to 74.2 years

Air pollution, which is primarily the result of burning fossil fuels, takes 2.2 years off the average global life expectancy, according to a new report out Tuesday from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) .

Life expectancy of air pollution compared with other more well-known causes of harm to human health, like smoking and terrorism.

Firsthand cigarette smoke reduces life expectancy by 1.9 years, on average, according to the report. Alcohol and drug use reduce life expectancy by nine months on average, unsafe water and sanitation reduce expectancy by seven months, HIV and AIDS reduce life expectancy by four months, malaria reduces average life by three months, and conflict and terrorism reduce life expectancy by seven days, the report said.

The AQLI report is notable because its estimate of the impact on particulate pollution on human life expectancy is based on research that allows it to show causation, not just correlation. "Because of the way these studies were designed - and the quite fortuitous set of policies that enabled that design, they established a causal, rather than a correlative, relationship between particulate matter exposure and mortality," Christa Hasenkopf, the director of AQLI, told CNBC.

Air pollution is so dangerous because it is impossible to avoid, especially for people who live in particularly polluted locations, the report says. "Whereas it is possible to quit smoking or take precautions against diseases, everyone must breathe air. Thus, air pollution affects many more people than any of these other conditions," the report says.

Sixty percent of particulate matter air pollution is caused by fossil fuel combustion, 18% comes from natural sources (including dust, sea salt, and wildfires), and 22% comes from other human activities.

The report, developed by the University of Chicago's Michael Greenstone and his team at the EPIC, is a measurement of the air pollution in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was reducing activity and transportation.

The massive contraction of activity reduced global pollution levels only by a tiny bit. Population weighted-average particulate matter declined from 27.7 micrograms (one-millionth of a gram) per cubic meter of air to 27.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air between 2019 and 2020, according to the report.

And in South Asia, where air pollution is the most dire, the air pollution rose in 2020 from the year prior. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal are among the most polluted countries in the world.

Particulate matter air pollution is suspended in the air and categorized by its size. The smaller it is, the deeper it can get into the body. Particulate matter with a diameter of less than 10 micrometers, often designated PM10 , can pass through the hairs in the nose, down the respiratory tract and into the lungs.

Smaller particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers, often designated as PM2.5, is about 3% the diameter of a human hair and can get into the bloodstream by way of the lungs' alveoli. It can affect blood flow, eventually causing a stroke, heart attack and other health issues.

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[1] Url: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/air-pollution-takes-2-years-off-your-life-more-than-smoking-or-alcohol.html

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