Short-term exposures to pollutant particles , even at lower levels within the margins that the environmental authorities of that country consider safe for the population, are directly related to an increased risk of suffering premature death . These are the data that a group of American scientists have presented after studying the rates of early death among the elderly in the United States.
Certain subgroups are particularly vulnerable to short-term air pollution. This percentage of mortality is higher in those people whose economy is poorer . Logical data, taking into account they face a lack of fresh and healthy food, as well as difficult access to health services.
The research has been carried out with a compilation of about 13 years of data , specifically from the beginning of the century until approximately 2013. Daily exposures to air pollution were evaluated using prediction models and subsequently, the results were linked to mortality rates of a small sample of the population .
The result suggests that it is not necessary to breathe polluted air for a long time for the symptoms to affect our body .
“This is the most comprehensive study of short-term exposure to pollution and mortality to date,” said Francesca Dominici , professor, co-director of the center where the project was carried out and lead author of the study . “We found that the death rate increases almost linearly as air pollution increases . Any level of air pollution, no matter how low, is detrimental to human health.”
Studies have shown that inhalable fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone, particularly ‘warm season ozone’, which is found from April to September, are linked to an increase in mortality rates.
According to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), long-term exposures to PM2.5 are considered safe if they average 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (12 μg / m3) or less per day over the course of a year.
A threat that knows no borders
During the study period, 22 million people died in the population of the collected samples. The data indicated that what appeared to be small increases in PM2.5 did indeed have a huge impact when these percentages were applied to the entire US population, and consequently would have resulted in the additional deaths of thousands of people. people during those 13 years.
Those results are playing a key role in a current EPA review of the annual NAAQS . New findings on short-term mortality risk from air pollution suggest EPA should re-evaluate daily NAAQS.
“No matter where you live, in cities, in the suburbs or in rural areas, as long as you breathe air pollution, you are at risk,” says Qian Di , another of the authors involved in the study.
