Global links between air pollution and
premature mortality
Embargo
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London: Wednesday 16 September 2015 18:00 (BST)
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New York: Wednesday 16 September 2015 13:00 (EDT)
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Tokyo: Thursday 17 September 2015 02:00 (JST)
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Sydney: Thursday 17 September 2015 03:00 (AEST)
Globally, outdoor air pollution leads to over 3 million premature deaths per year, predominantly in
Asia, suggests a study published in this week’s Nature. Outdoor air pollutants, such as ozone
and tiny particles (less than 0.0025 mm in diameter, known as fine particulate matter), are
associated with serious diseases with long-term health impacts. Quantifying the effects of
outdoor air pollution on a global scale is challenging, in part because air quality is not monitored
in some regions, and the toxicity of particles varies depending on their source.
Jos Lelieveld and colleagues combine a global atmospheric chemistry model with population
data and health statistics to estimate the relative contribution of different sources of outdoor air
pollution, mainly from fine particulate matter, to premature mortality. Their results show that
residential energy emissions, such as those from heating and cooking, which are prevalent in
India and China, have the largest impact on premature mortality worldwide. In most regions of
the USA and a few other countries, emissions from traffic and power generation are found to be
important, whereas in the eastern USA, Europe, Russia and East Asia, agricultural emissions are
the largest relative contribution of fine particulate matter.
On the basis of model projections, the authors predict that premature mortality from outdoor air
pollution could double by 2050, with 6.6 million premature deaths forecast globally per year,
including large increases in Southeast Asia and the western Pacific.
Article and author details
1. The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature
mortality on a global scale
Corresponding Author
Jos Lelieveld
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
Email: jos.lelieveld@mpic.de, Tel: +49 6131 305 4040
N&V Author
Michael Jerrett
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Tel: +1 310 825 9037; E-mail: mjerrett@ucla.edu
DOI
10.1038/nature15371
Online paper*
http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature15371
* Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).
Geographical listings of authors
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Cyprus
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Germany
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Saudi Arabia
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United States