Related
Mar 03,2020
Health Effects of Climate Change
Next City
Press
/ Aug 12,2016
California Air Pollution Deaths
Tony Barboza, a journalist at the Los Angeles Times, recently quoted Kevin Cromar, the Director of the Air Quality Program and Assistant Professor at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management, in an article titled "Thousands of lives could be saved in California by stricter air pollution limits, study finds". The article discusses an analysis by scientists at New York University and the American Thoracic Society, which estimated that more protective air quality standards would prevent 3,632 deaths a year in California, more than one-third of the 9,320 early deaths linked to dirty air nationwide.
Scientists long ago established that poor air quality shortens lives by worsening other illnesses. Previous health studies have shown that a long-term trend of emissions reductions — particularly for fine particle pollution — is, over time, resulting in fewer early deaths and longer life expectancy in cities across the U.S.
Yet the number of deaths from air pollution in the U.S. each year remains comparable to those from alcohol-related traffic fatalities, said Kevin Cromar, an assistant professor at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management and the study’s lead author.
Published in conjunction with the report is an online tool that allows people to search for the air pollution health risks in cities across the U.S. Cromar said the website will be updated over time to “allow cities to track their progress as they improve air quality.”
To read the full article, click here.