Air pollution particles from everyday products including paints, pesticides and vehicle tailpipes cause up to 900,000 premature deaths every year, study warns
- Study analysed pollution caused by ‘anthropogenic secondary organic aerosols’
- These are tiny particles that form from chemicals emitted by human activities
- Findings indicate 340,000-900,000 early deaths link to these particles per year
Air pollution from everyday products including paints, pesticides and vehicle tailpipes causes hundreds of thousands of premature deaths every year, a shocking new study has estimated.
Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder have calculated the effects of air pollution caused by ‘anthropogenic secondary organic aerosols’ – tiny particles that form from chemicals emitted by human activities.
Their estimates indicate that between 340,000 and 900,000 premature deaths are linked to these particles every year.
Benjamin Nault, co-author of the study, warned: ‘That’s more than 10 times as many deaths as previously estimated.’
Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder have calculated the effects of air pollution caused by ‘anthropogenic secondary organic aerosols’ – tiny particles that form from chemicals emitted by human activities
Previous studies have shown that fine particle pollution, called PM2.5, is linked to a whopping 3-4 million premature deaths globally per year.
For this reason, many countries have regulations in place to limit how many of these particles get into the atmosphere.
This includes from ‘direct’ sources, such as power plants and diesel exhausts, as well as from ‘indirect’ sources, such as fossil fuel emissions of sulphur and nitrogen dioxides.
However, the new study suggests that a third category should also be regulated – anthropogenic secondary organic aerosols.
‘The older idea was that to reduce premature mortality, you should target coal-fired power plants or the transportation sector,’ Dr Nault explained.
‘Yes, these are important, but we’re showing that if you’re not getting at the cleaning and painting products and other everyday chemicals, then you’re not getting at a major source.’
In the study, the team analysed data from 11 previous studies over the last two decades, including emissions from Beijing, London and New York City.
Particulate matter (PM) is emitted during the combustion of solid and liquid fuels, such as for power generation, domestic heating and in vehicle engines. Pictured, London obscured by pollution
Their analysis revealed across all 11 studies, the production of secondary organic aerosols was strongly correlated with particles emitted by human activity.
This included particles produced from vehicles tailpipes, from cooking fuels like wood and charcoal, and from house paints, cleaning products and other chemicals.
Jose-Luis Jimenez, co-author of the study, said: ‘Because this effect has been thought to be small, it hasn’t been targeted for control.
‘But when you take the atmospheric chemistry into account and put it into a model, you find that this particular source is killing a lot of people.’
The team now hopes to look at more cities around the world, to see if the same findings hold true.
‘If you care about air pollution impacts on health and mortality, you have to take this problem seriously,’ Dr Jimenez concluded.