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Sunday, August 16th, 2015

Air pollution kills over 4,000 every day in China

Author:     Dan Levine
Source:     The Times of India (India)/The New York Times
Publication Date:     Aug 15, 2015, 04.10 AM IST
 Link: Air pollution kills over 4,000 every day in China
Stephan:   We think of China as the hot new economy. Here is just one aspect of the human price it is costing to build that economy. Imagine 4,400 people a day, 1.6 million a year dying in the U.S. of air pollution. And this pollution doesn't just stay in China. Humanity is on a crash course with nature and the impact is going to be millions upon millions of deaths. As a species we may not be clear thinking enough to survive.
Heavy smog in Harbin, China Credit: beforeitsnews.com

Heavy smog in Harbin, China
Credit: beforeitsnews.com

BEIJING — Outdoor air pollution contributes to the deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people in China every year, or about 4,400 people a day, according to a newly released scientific paper. (emphasis added)

The paper maps the geographic sources of China’s toxic air and concludes that much of the smog that routinely shrouds Beijing comes from emissions in a distant industrial zone, a finding that may complicate the government’s efforts to clean up the capital city’s air in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The authors are members of Berkeley Earth, a research organization based in Berkeley, California.

According to the data in the paper, about three-eighths of the Chinese population breathe air that would be rated “unhealthy” by United States standards. The most dangerous of the pollutants studied were fine airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which can find their way deep into human lungs, be absorbed into the bloodstream and cause a host of health problems, including asthma, strokes, lung […]

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