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Air Pollution is Shaving a Year Off Our Average Life Expectancy

posted by chromas on Friday August 24 2018, @02:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the smoke-gets-in-your—oh-wait-we-did-that-already dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

On average worldwide, air pollution shaves a year off of human life expectancy, scientists report August 22 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. In more polluted regions of Asia and Africa, lives are shortened by 1.5 to two years on average.

The study, using 2016 country data from the Global Burden of Disease project, is the first major look at country-specific mortality impacts of fine particulate matter — bits of pollution, known as PM2.5, that are smaller than 2.5 micrometers, or 30 times smaller than the width of an average human hair. And it's the first to present those impacts in terms of life expectancy, rather than death or disease rates (SN: 11/25/17, p. 5). The approach is aimed at making the risk more relatable, says Joshua Apte, an environmental scientist at the University of Texas at Austin.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/air-pollution-shaving-year-our-average-life-expectancy

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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday August 25 2018, @09:50AM (2 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Saturday August 25 2018, @09:50AM (#726185)

    So is this what all the pollution fuss has been about? I will only make it to 87 years instead of 88* ? I don't care.

    But the effort spent put into reducing pollution to the last molecule (apparently only that will satisfy the greenies) is wasting more than a year of my life. For examples the EU banned creosote, so I need to spend more time maintaining rotting fences; the UK is severely taxing my "gas guzzling" car (although I don't drive it a lot) hence I take more time earning the money to pay for it, or I could buy a less polluting new car that would take more than a year's worth of my disposable income. I could go on with examples and they all add up.

    * My expectation based on my current state of health and the family average. We are talking about averages here aren't we?

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 25 2018, @11:35AM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 25 2018, @11:35AM (#726203) Journal
    If you're living in the countryside of the UK you're probably seeing almost no life span change from air pollution in the first place. Notice that the worst pollution harm mentioned 1.5 to 2 years for parts of Africa and Asia (which in turn are three quarters of the world's population). The research [acs.org] shows that "high income" parts of the world have reduced that loss of life to 0.37 years (a bit over 4 months on a life span of almost 81 years). That includes a bunch of urbanized places in the US, EU, and Far East Asia. If you're not living in or downwind of one of those places, then you're probably in much better shape than even that average.

    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday August 25 2018, @07:41PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Saturday August 25 2018, @07:41PM (#726327)

      I live in the UK on a minor road ten miles from the nearest town and two from the nearest village. So not much traffic fumes; however I have a lot of fencing so I am dying from creosote poisoning (according to the EU, LoL!).