LONDON (Reuters) – Pollution from fossil fuels is causing one in five premature deaths worldwide, suggesting the health effects of burning coal, oil and natural gas could be long-lasting higher than previously expected, according to a study published Tuesday.
Parts of China, India, Europe and the northeastern United States are among the hardest hit areas, suffering a disproportionately high proportion of 8.7 million annual deaths due to fossil fuels, the study published in the journal Environmental Research.
The new research provides the most accurate assessment of premature deaths due to fossil fuel air pollution to date. Another study in 2017 looked at the number of annual deaths from all outdoor grain products – including dust and smoke from agricultural fires and wildfires – at 4.2 million.
“Certainly our study does not in itself find a significant effect on health from exposure to air pollution, but we were swept away by the size of our estimate,” said Eloise Marais, an expert in atmospheric chemistry at University College London, and co-author of the study.
Previous research based on satellite and ground observation data had been struggling to differentiate pollution caused by burning fossil fuels from other sources of harmful grains, such as wildfires or dust .
The team from three British universities and Harvard University tried to overcome this problem by using a high-resolution model to give a clearer indication of what types of pollutants people were inhaling. in a specific area.
Concerned about the role of fossil fuel burning in causing climate change, the authors said they hoped the study, based on data from 2018, would give governments more impetus to accelerate the transition to more energy. glaine.
“We hope that by measuring the health benefits of fossil fuel burning, we can send a clear message to policy makers and stakeholders about the benefits of switching to alternative energy sources,” said co-author Joel Schwartz, environmental epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
Reciting with Matthew Green; Edited by Cynthia Osterman