Air pollution linked to 1.2m premature deaths in China

Air pollution has been linked to over a million premature deaths in China, new research from the University of Washington has revealed.

A global scientific study on the effects of air pollution revealed that outdoor air pollution contributed to some 1.2 million premature deaths in China in 2010. This is nearly 40 per cent of the global total.

The new data  analysis from the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study, published in The Lancet, also revealed that China’s toll from pollution equated to the loss of 25 million healthy years of life from the population.

These figures were deduced after authors of the study decided to break down the global figures into country-specific data.

Speaking at a forum in Beijing, Robert O’Keefe, vice president of the Health Effects Institute, commented: “We have been rolling out the India- and China-specific numbers, as they speak more directly to national leaders than regional numbers.”

Researchers found that "ambient particulate matter pollution" was the fourth leading risk factor for deaths in China in 2010. They came behind dietary risks, high blood pressure and smoking.

When it came to worldwide risk factors, air pollution ranked seventh, contributing to some 3.2 million deaths in 2010.

Furthermore, when researchers looked at India, which is also struggling with high levels of pollution, they found that the country experienced 620,000 premature deaths in 2010 due to outdoor air pollution. Indeed, it ranked the sixth most common killer in South Asia.

This comes as anger over excessive levels of air pollution in China has grown, with January seeing northern cities suffer from record levels.

Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that “urban air pollution is set to become the top environmental cause of mortality worldwide by 2050, ahead of dirty water and lack of sanitation.”