[ad_1]
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Air pollution, caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels, reduces the world's average life expectancy by 1.8 years per person, making it the largest killer in the world, announced Monday researchers.
PHOTO: Traffic at rush hour fills the Paris ring road, September 21, 2017. REUTERS / Charles Platiau
The tiny particles ingested by polluted air shorten life longer than cigarette smoke, which can reduce it by 1.6 years and is more dangerous than other public health threats such as war and HIV / AIDS, they said.
The University of Chicago's Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) shows that in some parts of India, the second largest country in the world in terms of population, we will live 11 years less because of high air pollution .
Life expectancy is on average slightly lower at 69 in the South Asian nation, at 1.3 billion euros, according to the World Bank.
The researchers launched a website that tells users how many years of air pollution could cost them depending on the region of the country where they live.
The index seeks to turn hard-to-understand data into "perhaps one of the most important indicators of life," said Michael Greenstone, director of the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute (EPIC). in a statement.
Particulate pollution is normally measured in micrograms per cubic meter.
"The fact that this AQLI tool quantifies the number of years since air pollution makes me worried," said Kalikesh Singh Deo, Member of the Indian Parliament, in a statement shared by EPIC.
China and Indonesia are also among the countries where microscopic particles floating in the air hit the inhabitants hardest, reducing their life expectancy by seven and five and a half years, respectively, the site said.
Other studies have previously focused on the number of people likely to die prematurely because of air pollution.
EPIC scientists hope however that this website – the first of its kind, according to the institute – will make the consequences of dirty energy policies more tangible and will encourage reforms aimed at improving the quality of the air.
A small number of India's 100 most polluted cities have developed air pollution plans when they were asked to do so three years ago, according to a report by the World Health Organization published earlier this year.
Report by Sebastien Malo @sebastienmalo, edited by Megan Rowling. Thank you for crediting the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Thomson Reuters charitable arm, which covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org
