Claim: Air pollution is shortening life span

Question

According to state of global air, "Exposure to Air Pollution Reduces Life Expectancy. Current levels of air pollution have reduced life expectancy by 1 year and 8 months on average worldwide." So is air pollution true causing a shortened life span or are other lifestyle factors causing it as well?

Answer 1

Sources: https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/news/most-of-the-world-breathes-unsafe-air-taking-more-than-2-years-off-global-life-expectancy/

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04032020/air-pollution-shortens-life-expectency-fossil-fuel/

According to the University of Chicago and EPIC, this is true. The Air Quality Life Index and the World Health Organization found that particle air pollution takes 2.2 years off the global average life expectancy. This impact of particle air pollution is 3x worse than alcohol usage, 3x worse than unsafe water, 6x worse than HIV/AIDS, and 89x worse than conflict/terrorism.

Another study examined global mortality data from 2015 and found that air pollution led to 8.8 million premature deaths, which is an average shortening of 2.9 years. East Asains residents had the largest decrease of 3.9 years, Australians at 0.8, and North Americans by 1.4. The same study also found that in comparison, smoking causes 7.2 million premature deaths and shortens lifespans ~2.2 years. Though the two sites gave a different average for how many years air pollution shortens the human life span, it is certain that it is true and somewhere between 2.2 and 3.9 years.

Michael Greenstone, the creator of the Air Quality Life Index has said, "In many places around the planet, like the United States, strong policies, supported by an equally strong willingness for change, have succeeded in reducing air pollution."

Comments

Great job explaining your sources in detail. I liked how you added two sources in your explanation as it strengthens your answer to the claim. Great job!

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You chose good sources that are reliable and provide specific information. In your fact check, I liked how you were straight to the point and provided factual information regarding air pollution and the decreased life expectancy. The only small suggestion I can think of is to maybe use a source that was a little more recent and use some more recent data, as the Global Morality data was published about nine years ago. But I do think that the information provided in that example is still relevant and does a good job in backing up your fact check and the original claim.

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Very thorough explanation! I like how you used multiple sources that individually came to similar conclusions.

I am curious though, when you say that the impact of air pollution is 3x worse than alcohol usage, 6x worse than HIV/AIDS, etc., do you mean that the amount of time taken off of the global average life expectancy from air pollution is 3 times greater than time taken off from alcohol usage, and so on? Or are these comparisons measuring something else?

Answer 2

Yes, air pollution has been shown to shorten lifespan. A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health in 2019 found that exposure to particulate matter (PM) 2.5, a common air pollutant, is associated with reduced life expectancy, with the strongest associations found in low- and middle-income countries. The study estimated that globally, exposure to PM 2.5 reduces life expectancy by an average of 1.8 years, and by more than 2 years in some heavily polluted regions.

Reference: 

Burnett R, Chen H, Szyszkowicz M, Fann N, Hubbell B, Pope CA, et al. Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018;115(38):9592-9597. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1803222115

Answer 3

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/air-pollution-takes-2-years-off-your-life-more-than-smoking-or-alcohol.html

According to a report from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, air pollution can reduce one's life expectancy by roughly 2.2 years. This article also states thta this statistic will disproportionately impact marginalized communities.

Answer 4

According to the Air Quality Life Index, growing evidence shows air pollution, even when experienced at low levels, hurts human health. The Air Quality Life Index found that air pollution takes 2.2 years off of global life expectancy. Pollution remained high even though COVID-19 slowed down the economy. The World Health Organization revised its guidelines for what is considers a safe level of exposure of a particulate pollution, brining 97.3% of the global population into the unsafe zone. Therefore, this claim is true.

Source: https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/news/most-of-the-world-breathes-unsafe-air-taking-more-than-2-years-off-global-life-expectancy/

Answer 5

Air pollution is definetly shortening lifespan. According to an article from state of global air, the effects of air pollution definitely have an effect on life expectancies. As stated in the article, "Considered separately, in 2019 ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) reduced life expectancy by 1 year, household air pollution by 0.7 year, and ambient ozone by 0.07 year" This shows that there is evidence that air pollution can shorten lifespan, even if its not by much. 

https://www.stateofglobalair.org/health/life-expectancy#:~:text=Learn%20More-,SIGNIFICANT%20IMPACTS,8%20months%20on%20average%20worldwide.

Comments

Going forward, it's best to dig deeper and find a source that hasn't been used within the claim (re: stateofglobalair.org was used for the claim).

Answer 6

The statement that air pollution reduces life expectancy is true. However, from the information I have gathered, it reduces life expectancy by more than 1 year and 8 months. According to a report from AQLI, the air quality life index, certain air pollution can actually take off 2.2 years of someone's life. The AQLI's main goal is to convert air pollution concentrations into their hypothetical impact on life expectancy. They compared the impact of air pollution to that of cigarette smoking.

I believe the AQLI is credible because one of the authors, Christa Hasenkopf, is the former Chief Air Pollution Advisor to the Office of Medical Services at the US Department of State.

https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/reports/

Answer 7

According to the link below, air pollution reduces average worldwide life expectancy by two years, more than smoking or drinking.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/air-pollution-takes-2-years-off-your-life-more-than-smoking-or-alcohol.html#:~:text=Climate%20Policy-,Air%20pollution%20takes%202%20years%20off%20average%20global%20life,more%20than%20smoking%20or%20alcohol

Answer 8

This is true, air pollution is shortening life span. Current levels of air pollution have reduced life expectancy by 1 year and 8 months on average worldwide. This is becoming more increasingly an issue.

Source: https://www.stateofglobalair.org/health/life-expectancy

Comments

Going forward, it's best to dig deeper and find a source that hasn't been used within the claim (re: stateofglobalair.org was used for the claim).

Answer 9

According to the State of Global Air, this statement is true. According to the article, in 2019, "air pollution shortened life expectancy by 1 year and 8 months".

This statement is based off of research done during this year. However, areas with less development will have a larger affect.

According to the article, air pollution  "life expectancy losses were greatest in Oceania, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa". These losses can get up to almost 3 years life expectancy loss.

Comments

Going forward, it's best to dig deeper and find a source that hasn't been used within the claim (re: stateofglobalair.org was used for the claim).

Answer 10

The statement is accurate. Exposure to air pollution has been shown to have significant negative effects on human health, including reducing life expectancy. The State of Global Air report, which is based on research conducted by the Health Effects Institute, found that current levels of air pollution have reduced life expectancy by 1 year and 8 months on average worldwide. This is due to the fact that exposure to air pollution can cause or exacerbate a range of health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), among others.