Agriculture makes a surprisingly large contribution to global pollution. (credit: Lawrence Berkeley Labs)
Recently, scientists have used global atmospheric chemistry obtained from satellite data to improve our understanding of the global spread of air pollutants. They looked at seven emission source categories in both urban and rural environments, and the result is a more realistic prediction of the health effects caused by very high concentrations of particulate pollutants.
The main contributors to air pollution are ozone and fine particulate matter—that is, particles with a diameter of less than 2.5μm, and we know air pollution can influence an individual’s likelihood of developing a number of diseases. Several previous studies have explored this topic at the regional level. However, both air quality monitoring and particulate matter composition vary greatly among different countries, so building a more global perspective hasn't been easy.
Who’s dying?
It’s difficult to know how pollution will affect an individual's health. Existing air quality guidelines, which range from national regulatory policies to those of the World Health Organization, are often based on exposure response functions that focus on the mass of the particles. But this measurement doesn’t account for differences in toxicity based on chemical differences—evidence suggests that chemical composition of pollutants dramatically influences their toxicity. As a result, it was hard to estimate the overall effects on mortality rates.
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