Curbing greenhouse gas emissions would have immediate benefits for human health, say US researchers.
The team selected four major cities in North and South America and estimated the health effects of implementing simple, 鈥渞eadily acquirable鈥� measures to combat greenhouse gas emissions, such as restricting traffic and cleaning up 鈥渄irty鈥� power stations, over the next 20 years.
These measures would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 13 per cent, and prevent 64,000 premature deaths, says Devra Lee Davis and her team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. They would also prevent 65,000 cases of chronic bronchitis and 37 million days of 鈥渞estricted activity鈥� or work loss by 2020.
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鈥淲e found real and immediate benefits for public health,鈥� Davis says.
The team hope their research will help make policy-makers and the public aware of the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to human health in the short term, as well as on climate change in the longer term.
Dangerous particulates
Air pollution is one of the top ten causes of 鈥渄isability鈥� worldwide, and is linked to nearly 700,000 deaths every year, according to the WHO.
Greenhouse gases themselves do not kill people. But reducing emissions by cleaning up dirty power stations, for example, would also lead to a reduction in dangerous emissions, such as ozone and tiny airborne particulates.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 13 per cent would also cut concentrations of ozone and airborne particulates by ten per cent. The reduction in ozone and tiny particulates would drive the improvement in public health.
The team used data on air pollution and hospital records from New York City, Mexico City, Santiago and Sao Paulo to produce their new figures.
鈥淜illing millions鈥�
鈥淭here is little doubt that air pollution from current patterns of fossil fuel use for electricity generation, transport, industry and housing is already sickening or killing millions throughout the world,鈥� the team write in the journal Science.
鈥淔or every day that policies to reduce fossil fuel combustion emissions are postponed, deaths and illnesses related to air pollution will be increased.鈥�
The measures to restrict greenhouse gas emissions used in the team鈥檚 model could be adopted tomorrow, Davis says.
Fintan Hurley, research director of the Institute of Occupational 午夜福利1000集合 in Edinburgh, says the work is an 鈥渋nteresting application鈥� of health data.
However, he urges caution. 鈥淲hile the data on the acute effects of pollution, such as mortality and hospital admissions, are very strong, other effects like chronic bronchitis are much less well understood,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese uncertainties are not really reflected in the figures.鈥�
Journal reference: Science (vol 293, no 5533)