Air pollution causes Chinese people to lose their lives for three years

Hazardous smoke and dust, especially coal smoke, make people in northern China reduce their life by three years.

According to new research by Chinese, Israeli and American experts, smoke from burning coal could make people in northern China reduce their lifespan by three years compared to southern men, Bussiness Insider on 12 September.

Smoke from burning coal causes serious air pollution in China.(Photo: Getty Images).

The study is based on air quality data in 154 Chinese cities from 1981 to 2012. Accordingly, the level of pollution in the north is 46% higher.

Bad air quality in the north made people lose an average of 3.1 years of life expectancy compared to southerners. The cause is diseases such as lung cancer or stroke are more common.

"The mortality rate has increased markedly. This is not only happening in young people and the elderly but also in middle age. Air pollution affects everyone", Michael Greenstone, expert in energy and environment at the University of Chicago, the study co-author said.

In the past, coal kilns were widely used in northern China, where the climate was colder, partly because of government policy to provide free coal to households. The northern part of the country is also facing more serious smoke, especially in the fall and winter, when people burn a lot of coal for heating.

The fact that people are becoming dissatisfied with the dense haze has prompted the government to launch a campaign against air pollution, in which households are forced to replace coal heaters with electric or gas heaters. These efforts have worked, Greenstone said.

However, last month, the government admitted it was still under pressure to reduce PM2.5 , the most fine dust in polluted air that is most harmful to health.

Serious air pollution in Harbin, China.(Photo: Reuters).

The widespread air pollution continues to cause many Chinese people to die early, especially in industrial areas, according to air quality and life statistics by researchers at the Institute of Energy Policy. University of Chicago.

The average Chinese can live 3.5 years more if the PM2.5 concentration remains below the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. The Beijing people can live 6.4 years more if the PM2.5 reaches international standards, while the people in Harbin will spend an additional 6.9 years.

Previous studies have also shown that the alarming effects of dust and smoke in China have caused health problems.

Smoke involves nearly one-third of deaths in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River, according to a 2013 mortality rate. another by the American Health Impact Research Institute earlier this year showed that air pollution caused about 1.1 million Chinese people to die early.