If you are still looking for another reason to support clean, renewable energy, you should pay attention to new research published in the European Heart Journal. According to the authors of an article entitled, “Cardiovascular disease burden from ambient air pollution in Europe reassessed using novel hazard ratio functions,” particulate air pollution’s impact via the bloodstream on heart disease and strokes is responsible for twice as many deaths as respiratory diseases. According to the study’s authors, “Our results indicate a much higher disease burden than previously assumed….Furthermore, there is still little mention of air pollution as a risk factor in the European and American guidelines on health care and disease prevention.”
Almost 800,000 Europeans die annually from ambient air pollution, the article says. “We estimate that air pollution reduces the mean life expectancy in Europe by about 2.2 years,” the authors say. They add, “…replacing fossil fuels by clean, renewable energy sources could substantially reduce the loss of life expectancy from air pollution.”
Europe is particularly prone to particulate air pollution because of its abundance of diesel-powered vehicles and wood or pellet burning.
The country in the study with the highest mortality rate from air pollution? Germany with 154 deaths per 100,000.
Click here to read more from the study just published earlier this week.
