A new study has show how air pollution is wreaking havoc in China by claiming a whopping 1.6 million lives – an equivalent of 4,000 deaths per day.
The report by Berkeley Earth, which will be published in PLOS ONE, is based on hourly measurements of 1500 ground stations covering 4 months. The analysis of the air pollution data shows that sources of PM2.5 match those of sulfur indicating that most of the pollution comes from coal. Worldwide, air pollution kills over three million people per year – more than AIDS, malaria, diabetes or tuberculosis – the report says.
Researchers say that PM2.5 is the most harmful pollution that is 2.5 microns and smaller and can penetrate deeply into lungs and triggers heart attacks, stroke, lung cancer, and asthma.
“Beijing is only a moderate source PM2.5; it receives much of its pollution from distant industrial areas, particularly Shijiazhuang, 200 miles to the southwest,” says Robert Rohde, coauthor of the paper. Since the sources aren’t local, reducing pollution for the 2022 Olympics may prove difficult.
“Air pollution is the greatest environmental disaster in the world today,” says Richard Muller, Scientific Director of Berkeley Earth, coauthor of the paper. “When I was last in Beijing, pollution was at the hazardous level; every hour of exposure reduced my life expectancy by 20 minutes. It’s as if every man, women, and child smoked 1.5 cigarettes each hour,” he said.
Elizabeth Muller, Executive Director of Berkeley Earth, said “It’s troubling that air pollution is killing so many and yet isn’t on the radar for major environmental organizations in the US or Europe.” She says that solutions include greater use of scrubbers, increased energy efficiency, and switching from coal to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewables. “Many of the same solutions that mitigate air pollution will simultaneously reduce China’s contribution to global warming. We can save lives today and tomorrow.”
Berkeley Earth hopes to expand geographic coverage to include more of Asia, the US, and Europe, and to study how sources of air pollution change with time.
