Air pollution cut ‘could save more lives than curing breast cancer’

‘Very large effect on survival’

REDUCING air pollution would save more lives than cures for breast and lung cancer combined, scientists say.

Sooty particles from diesel cars and factories are killing 7million people around the world every year, according to World Health Organisation figures.

The WHO also estimates that 571,000 people died from breast cancer and 1.69million from lung cancer in 2015.

Scientists now say that cleaning up the atmosphere would not only save millions, but would increase lifespans across the world by an average of one year. It is the first time data on air pollution and global life expectancy has been studied together.

Assistant professor Joshua Apte, of the University of Texas, looked at outdoor air pollution from tiny particles known as PM2.5.

Medical experts are becoming increasingly aware of evidence that these particles – so microscopic that they are inhaled deep into our lungs – increase the risk of asthma, dementia, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke and premature birth.

Professor Apte’s team of engineers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study to measure PM2.5 exposure in 185 countries.

They then quantified the impact on life expectancy.

The findings, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, show for the UK and US, PM2.5 pollu- tion is shaving off around four months. Other countries fare much worse. PM2.5 pollution was found to cut the average Egyptian’s lifespan by two years and an Indian’s by almost one and a half years. Russians lose around nine months.

Most of the deaths linked to PM2.5 pollution occur in low and middle-income countries, mainly in Asia and Africa.

But Britons are far from exempt. It has been estimated that pollution, including PM2.5 and other types, causes 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK. The problem has been labelled a public health emergency by the WHO.

Professor Apte suggested that the latest data on lifespans could be more relatable for populations than statistics on deaths caused by pollution.

He said: ‘A body count saying 90,000 Americans or 1.1million Indians die per year from air pollution is large but faceless.

‘Saying that on average, a population lives a year less than they would have otherwise – that is something relatable.’

He added: ‘The fact that fine particle air pollution is a major global killer is already well known. And we all care about how long we live. Here, we were able to systematically identify how air pollution also substantially shortens lives around the world. What we found is that air pollution has a very large effect on survival – on average about a year globally.’

He also said that the benefit of tackling pollution would be ‘considerably larger than the benefit in survival we might see if we found cures for both lung and breast cancer combined’ and that elderly people in India and China in particular would benefit from cleaner air.