This is the source of the paper on the effects of air pollution in China that is being talked about at the moment. The news that air pollution is bad for health is not exactly news, but this study adds several important pieces of information: 1) it separates out the effects of particulates from other pollutants (not an easy thing to do), including making allowances for hidden variables, the bugbear of mass-survey studies of this type 2) it places it in a China context and links the issue directly with coal burning 3) it gives a reasonably precise number for loss in life expectancy from air pollution: 3 years less life expectancy for every 100 microgrammes/m3 of PM2.5 (to put that in context, level in Beijing when the air quality index on the US Embassy scale = 250 is 200 microgrammes/m3). 4) it included Chinese researchers from both Peking and Tsinghua Universities, raising the prospects of the research being taken seriously in Beijing What the study does not do is look at the particulates from motor vehicles, particularly diesel engines, which are probably an important factor in the cities. This does nothing to detract from the results achieved however. Hats off to the researchers who have spent several years on this work.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 09:44:50 +0000
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