Science & Planet, The world health organization (WHO) was previously known that air pollution, particularly fine dust, is responsible for 4.2 to 4.5 million extra deaths per year. In a study, that today appears in the scientific journal European Heart Journal , show German researchers that that figure is twice as high. Fine dust requires even more deaths than tobacco, according to research.
Scientists of the Johannes Gutenberg University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz a new model of the interaction between different pollutiebronnen, atmospheric processes, our exposure to pollution and the mortality rates better in the future.
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air Pollution in Europe each year, the cause of death of about 800,000 people worldwide yearly 8.8 million people. That is a lot more than initially thought, says professor Thomas Münzel ‘The Guardian’. “The WHO assumes that in 2015, 7.2 million people died from the consequences of tobacco. That means that air pollution worldwide, more lives demanding than tobacco. And smoking you can avoid pollution.”
“The relation between air pollution and heart disease and respiratory disorders has been amply demonstrated. Air pollution causes damage to the blood vessels. The result is an increase of the blood pressure, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks and heart failure,” says professor Jos Lelieveld of the Max Planck Institute.
Peaks in Eastern Europe
According to the researchers, causes of air pollution worldwide, an average of 120 additional deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year. In Europe will increase that average to 133. Belgium with 126 around the EU average of 129. The lifetime decreases by an average of 2.2 years, as appears from the figures. Especially in Eastern Europe, the numbers are high.
“The high European figures, we may explain by the combination of poor air quality and high population density, what is our exposure to pollution of the highest in the world,” says Münzel. “That figures, especially peaks in Eastern Europe, where the pollution is similar to that in Western Europe, is probably due to the better healthcare in Western Europe.”