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Increasing levels of air pollution worldwide are increasing the risk of premature death, a new study finds. In Australia, where air pollution is historically low, an increase in air polluted by soot has resulted in a sharp increase in the rate of previous deaths.
More air pollution means more deaths, even at low levels of air pollution and at short exposures, according to the study, which measured daily particle levels and death rates in 652 cities of 24 countries in 30 years. It is the largest international study on the short-term effects of air pollution on death, conducted to date, and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
There is already much research on how this type of pollution makes people sick. Inhaling dust particles, ashes and burning fossil fuels can damage the heart and lungs. He has been associated with chronic pulmonary and heart problems, as well as premature death. Today's study shows that even low concentrations of particles can be dangerous.
The results are particularly evident now, while the Amazon rainforest is burning in some places. fastest rates ever recorded in the country
Today's survey shows that death rates have risen sharply, as has air pollution – an alarming finding, especially in Brazil, where the increase in the death rate did not come in. second position than Australia. In Brazil, the Amazon rainforest is currently burning at one of the fastest rates ever recorded in the country. And these forest fires generate particles. The smoke from the fires was so strong that it darkened the sky of the city of São Paulo. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is committed to opening the Amazon to the interests of the agri-food and mining sector, thus making it vulnerable to people cutting and burning to clear land.
To determine that the deaths were really early, the researchers compared the daily mortality rates over the period of the study. Compared to daily early death rates, there was an increase in deaths on days when air pollution increased.
If you look at the percentages, the increases seem minimal. For all causes of death, mortality rates increased by 0.44% when the amount of coarse particles increased slightly. For fine particles, which are smaller and can enter the deep lungs by inhalation, mortality rates increased by 0.68% when concentrations increased. But less than 1% of the world's population is still made up of millions of people.
"If we look at a population of one million people in a city, one percent is significant and it can affect a lot of people," says co-author Eric Lavigne. The edge. Lavigne is a professor at the University of Ottawa and a senior epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Some countries in the analysis, such as the United States, have already put in place measures to control air pollution; despite this, they have seen mortality rates increase as pollution increases. This means that there is still much to be done. "We can still have an impact on public health by becoming cleaner than we already are," said John Balmes, spokesperson for the American Lung Association, who teaches at the University of California in San Francisco and Berkeley.
Balmes adds, "A relatively low risk that concerns the entire population can be just as important in terms of public health as a risk factor stronger than everyone else does not suffer. [like smoking]. "
The US Environmental Protection Agency is currently reevaluating its national air quality standards. Studies such as this suggest that public health is a good reason to limit air pollution, but it is not certain that this document (and other similar ones) will be considered by the United States in this analysis. . The Trump administration has tried to limit the types of evidence it considers to those that fall under a particular scientific approach – and this is not part of this framework. But excluding studies like this "would set a dangerous precedent for environmental policy," writes Balmes in his editorial.
The Environmental Protection Agency did not respond to an email from The edge ask for a comment.
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