MCLC: pollution leads to drop in life span in north

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: pollution leads to drop in life span in north
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Source: NYT (7/8/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/world/asia/pollution-leads-to-drop-in-lif
e-span-in-northern-china-study-finds.html

Pollution Leads to Drop in Life Span in Northern China, Research Finds
By EDWARD WONG

BEIJING — Southern Chinese on average have lived at least five years
longer than their northern counterparts in recent decades because of the
destructive health effects of pollution from the widespread use of coal in
the north, according to a study released Monday
<http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/07/03/1300018110> by a prominent
American science journal.

The study, which appears in The Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences <http://www.pnas.org/>, was conducted by an American, an Israeli
and two Chinese scholars and was based on analyses of health and pollution
data collected by official Chinese sources from 1981 to 2001.

The results provide a new assessment of the enormous cost of China’s
environmental degradation, which in the north is partly a result of the
emissions of deadly pollutants from coal-driven energy generation. The
researchers project that the 500 million Chinese who live north of the
Huai River will lose 2.5 billion years of life expectancy because of
outdoor air pollution.

“It highlights that in developing countries there’s a trade-off in
increasing incomes today and protecting public health and environmental
quality,” said the American member of the research team, Michael
Greenstone <http://economics.mit.edu/faculty/mgreenst/>, a professor of
environmental economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “And
it highlights the fact that the public health costs are larger than we had
thought.”

Mr. Greenstone said in a telephone interview that another surprising
result of the study was that the higher mortality rates were found across
all age groups.

The study is the first measuring this kind of impact that relies purely on
data collected within China. Its conclusions are based on analyses of
population groups living in areas north and south of the Huai River. The
Chinese government has for years maintained a policy of free coal for
boilers to generate winter heating north of the river, which runs parallel
to and between the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. That policy and the ubiquity
of northern coal-fired factories have contributed to the vast gap between
the coal pollutants emitted in north and south.

Howard Frumkin, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of
Washington, said a “strong point” of the study was its basis in the
“natural experiment” resulting from China’s disparate coal policies. “The
results are biologically plausible, and consistent with previous
research,” he said.

For every additional 100 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter
above the average pollution levels in the south, the life expectancy at
birth drops by three years, the researchers found. Mr. Greenstone said
that estimate could be roughly applied to other developing nations where
the baseline level of pollutants was high.

“This adds to the growing mountain of evidence of the heavy cost of
China’s pollution,” said Alex L. Wang, a law professor at the University
of California, Los Angeles, who studies Chinese environmental policies.
“Other studies have shown significant near-term harms, in the form of
illness, lost work days and even risks to children beginning in utero.
This study suggests that the long-term harms of coal pollution might be
worse than we thought.”

Mr. Wang said the new study could “help to build the case for more
aggressive environmental regulation” — for example, a previous order by
Chinese leaders to shut down coal-fired boilers in some areas could be
widened, and faster shutdown times could be required.

The health statistics recorded through the two-decade period by Chinese
officials and examined by the study’s researchers showed that the 5.5-year
drop in life expectancy in the north was almost entirely due to a rise in
deaths attributed to cardiorespiratory diseases or related health problems.

The pollution data, also recorded by officials, indicated that the
concentration of particulates north of the Huai was 184 micrograms per
cubic meter higher than in the south, or 55 percent greater.

Several recent scientific studies have revealed the toll that China’s
outdoor air pollution is taking on humans. This spring, new data released
from the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study revealed that such pollution
contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010, or nearly 40 percent
of the global total.

Some Chinese officials have sought to quash reports that link premature
deaths to pollution. According to news reports, Chinese officials excised
parts of a 2007 report called “Cost of Pollution in China” that had
concluded that 350,000 to 400,000 people die prematurely in China each
year because of outdoor air pollution. The study was done by the World
Bank with the help of the Chinese State Environmental Protection
Administration, the precursor to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

This year, many Chinese have expressed fury and frustration over the
surging levels of air pollution, especially in the north, which in January
had record levels of particulate matter. Pollution levels have remained
high this summer, and many foreigners and middle- or upper-class Chinese
with children are looking to leave the country rather than tolerate the
health risks.

Mr. Greenstone said he did not have a basis for comparing pollution levels
now with those during the period covered by the study, 1981 to 2001.
During that time, the method of measuring particulate matter was
different. Mr. Greenstone also said he did not know how pollution in
northern China affected the life expectancy for people not living there
for their entire lives, or for residents of northern China who made
frequent or long trips to less polluted areas.