Harmful effects of pollution: Living in a polluted city cuts global average life expectancy
| Updated: Nov 27, 2018, 13:46 IST
According to the new Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), developed by researchers at the University of Chicago in the US, particulate air pollution cuts global average life expectancy by 1.8 years per person. Did you know that people in India would live an average of 4.3 years longer if the country met the global guidelines for particulate pollution? AQLI establishes particulate pollution as the single greatest threat to human health globally and its effects on life expectancy exceed devastating communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, behavioural killers like cigarette smoking, and even war.
"Around the world today, people are breathing air that represents a serious risk to their health. But the way this risk is communicated is very often opaque and confusing, translating air pollution concentrations into colours, like red, brown, orange and green," said Michael Greenstone, a professor at Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). "My colleagues and I developed the AQLI, where the 'L' stands for 'life,' to address these shortcomings. It takes particulate air pollution concentrations and converts them into perhaps the most important metric that exists: life expectancy," he said. The AQLI is based on a pair of studies that quantify the causal relationship between long-term human exposure to particulate pollution and life expectancy.
On average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if the country met the WHO guideline - expanding the average life expectancy at birth there from 69 to 73 years. "While people can stop smoking and take steps to protect themselves from diseases, there is little they can individually do to protect themselves from the air they breathe," Greenstone said. "The AQLI tells citizens and policymakers how particulate pollution is affecting them and their communities and reveals the benefits of policies to reduce particulate pollution," he added.
"Around the world today, people are breathing air that represents a serious risk to their health. But the way this risk is communicated is very often opaque and confusing, translating air pollution concentrations into colours, like red, brown, orange and green," said Michael Greenstone, a professor at Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). "My colleagues and I developed the AQLI, where the 'L' stands for 'life,' to address these shortcomings. It takes particulate air pollution concentrations and converts them into perhaps the most important metric that exists: life expectancy," he said. The AQLI is based on a pair of studies that quantify the causal relationship between long-term human exposure to particulate pollution and life expectancy.
On average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if the country met the WHO guideline - expanding the average life expectancy at birth there from 69 to 73 years. "While people can stop smoking and take steps to protect themselves from diseases, there is little they can individually do to protect themselves from the air they breathe," Greenstone said. "The AQLI tells citizens and policymakers how particulate pollution is affecting them and their communities and reveals the benefits of policies to reduce particulate pollution," he added.