According to Allen Robinson, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who wasn’t part of the study, agricultural emissions are becoming more and more significant here but are not regulated.
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A new worrying statistic has drawn the attention of both scientists and environmentalists, when the death count due to air pollution reached 3.3 million per year around the entire world. The researchers used a detailed computer model of the global atmosphere to assess the impact of air pollution on different populations, including new information on how pollution affects people in China and India. About three quarters of the deaths are from strokes and heart attacks, said lead author Jos Lelieveld at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany.
“About 6 percent of all global deaths each year occur prematurely due to exposure to ambient air pollution. This number is higher than most experts would have expected, say, 10 years ago”. A recent study put the daily death rate from air pollution related causes at 4,000 per day in China, or nearly 1 in 5 of all deaths. With 54,905 deaths in 2010 from soot and smog, The US ranks seventh highest for air pollution deaths. “In some countries air pollution is actually a leading cause of death, and in many countries it is a major issue.” added Lelieveld. Agricultural operations were the second-biggest cause and a major pollution source in the eastern US, Europe, Russian Federation and Japan, accounting for a fifth of deaths. Worldwide, agriculture is the No. 2 cause with 664,100 deaths, behind the more than 1 million deaths from in-home heating and cooking done with wood and other biofuels in developing world.
Lelieveld cited the example of London, where the traffic pollution is converted into soot, “then it is mixed with ammonia and transported downwind to the next city”. According to Lelieveld, when fertilizer breaks down, ammonia gas is released into the air and combine with sulfates from power plants and auto exhaust.
Emissions from power plants, factories, vehicles and burning biomass accounted for almost a third of the deaths, the researchers found.
“Our goal now is to ensure that the affected cars are brought into compliance, to dig more deeply into the extent and implications of Volkswagen’s efforts to cheat on clean air rules, and to take appropriate further action”, said Air Resources board exec officer Richard Corey.
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Emissions from traffic and power generation were responsible for premature deaths in some countries of the world. That’s based on no change in air pollution. This deadly combination creates soot particles capable of traveling in whatever direction the wind goes.
