Agriculture big contributor to air pollution deaths
Posted on: 18/Sep/2015 4:28:50 PM
According to scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, 3.3 million people die around the world due to air pollution. A surprising claim is that farming is a major contributor to smog and soot deaths, especially in industrial countries.
The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists in Germany, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Harvard University. They calculated estimates of air pollution in their parts of the world and studied the causes and effects. The paper says that by 2050, air pollution deaths will double to 6.6 million a year, if not curbed. The study was published in the journal Nature.
Speaking about the study, the experts said, About three quarters of the deaths are from strokes and heart attacks... The findings are similar to other less detailed pollution death estimates. About 6% of all global deaths each occur prematurely due to exposure to ambient air pollution. This number is higher than most experts would have expected, say, 10 years ago.
China leads the number with 1.4 million deaths a year. India and Pakistan are second and third at 645,000 and 110,000 respectively. There were 54,905 deaths in the United States which were attributed to soot and smog. The US ranks seventh in the list.
