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Climate change has little impact on air pollution deaths. Heavy smog, rated as ‘Hazardous’ by the the U.S. embassy air quality monitor, hangs over Beijing’s central business district on February 22, 2013. UPI/Stephen Shaver
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., July 12 (UPI) – More than 2 million people die worldwide each year as a direct result of human-caused outdoor air pollution, U.S. researchers say.
Study co-author Jason West of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said some suggest a changing climate might exacerbate the effects of air pollution and increase death rates, but the study showed this has a minimal effect.
“Our estimates make outdoor air pollution among the most important environmental risk factors for health,” West said in a statement. “Many of these deaths are estimated to occur in East Asia and South Asia, where population is high and air pollution is severe.”
