| Air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths each year in the United States, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Researchers at MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, say emissions from road transportation are the leading single cause of pollution, contributing 53,000 premature deaths, and that electrical power generation causes another 52,000. “In the past five to 10 years, the evidence linking air-pollution exposure to risk of early death has really solidified and gained scientific and political traction,” says Steven Barrett, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “There’s a realization that air pollution is a major problem in any city, and there’s a desire to do something about it.” Baltimore, Maryland, was the city with the highest emissions-related death rate in the United States, with 130 out of every 100,000 deaths likely caused by exposure to air pollution. According to Barrett, a person who dies from air-pollution causes typically dies about a decade earlier than he or she might have otherwise. The study was done using data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Emissions Inventory, a... |
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