China Air Pollution Kills 4,000 People a Day: Researchers
Commercial and residential buildings stand shrouded in haze in Shanghai, China, on April 18.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Air pollution is killing an average of 4,000 people a day in China, according to researchers who cited coal-burning as the likely principal cause.
Deaths related to the main pollutant, tiny particles known as PM2.5s that can trigger heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and asthma, total 1.6 million a year, or 17 percent of China’s mortality level, according to the study by Berkeley Earth, an independent research group funded largely by educational grants. It was published Thursday in the online peer-reviewed journal PLOS One from the Public Library of Science.