According to study published on Tuesday, microscopic air pollution, primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels, reduces lifespans by more than two years worldwide.
University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute
According to a study by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, if fine particulate matter levels in South Asia were to meet World Health Organization guidelines, the average person’s lifespan would increase by five years.
300 million-person states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
The severe lung and heart diseases brought on by so-called PM2.5 pollution cut the life expectancy of the 300 million-person states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and the nation’s capital, New Delhi, by eight years and ten years, respectively.
The bloodstream is directly contacted by PM2.5 pollution, which has a diameter of 2.5 microns or less, or about the same as a human hair. Read More
It was designated a cancer-causing substance by the UN in 2013.
According to the WHO, the concentration of PM2.5 in the air should not exceed 15 mcg/m3 in any 24-hour period or 5 mcg/m3 on average per year.
The WHO tight these guidelines last year. The first modification made since air quality guidance was establish in 2005, in response to accumulating evidence of harmful health effects. Learn More
Senior researcher Crista Hasenkopf and colleagues
According to senior researcher Crista Hasenkopf and colleagues’ findings in the Air Quality Life Index report, “Clean air pays back in additional years of life for people around the world.”
“Average life expectancy will increase by 2.2 years if global air pollution were permanently reduce to meet WHO limits.”
Asia is on a a dead End
South Asia
Nearly all inhabited areas of the world surpass WHO limits, but Asia exceeds them by a factor of 15 in Bangladesh, a factor of 10 in India, and a factor of 9 in Nepal and Pakistan.
Southeast Asia and parts of Central America
Along with much of Southeast Asia and parts of Central America, Central and West Africa like wise experience pollution levels and life expectancy reductions that are significantly higher than the world norm.
Surprisingly, despite a significant slowdown in the world economy and a commensurate decline in CO2 emissions because of Covid lockdowns. PM2.5 pollution in 2020, the latest statistics available, was essentially not change from the year before.
The authors noticed that during the first year of the epidemic, pollution increased across South Asia.
