Air pollution from animal-based food production is linked to 12,700 deaths each year, study says
Air pollution from food production in the United States is linked to an estimated 15,900 premature deaths each year, according to a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Of those, an estimated 12,700 deaths around 80% are connected to production of animal-based foods.
Scientists have known for years that farming contributes to harmful air pollution, but experts say this study offers the first full accounting of deaths connected to the production of certain types of food.
“When we think of the big sources of air pollution in the U.S., our imagination usually turns to smokestacks and tailpipes,” said Joshua Apte, an assistant professor at the University of California-Berkeley, who was not involved in this study. “But it turns out that agriculture is also a major contributor to our air pollution and theref
Air pollution exposure disparities among people of color and white people are driven by nearly all, rather than only a few, emission source types, a new study shows.
Previous studies have shown that people of color are disproportionately exposed to air pollution in the United States. However, it was unclear whether this unequal exposure is due mainly to a few types of emission sources or whether the causes are more systemic.
“Our study reinforces previous findings that race, rather than income, is what truly drives air pollution-exposure disparities.”
The new study in
Science Advances modeled peoples’ exposure to air pollution based on race/ethnicity and income level.
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A recent study confirms what community members and environmental justice advocates have been saying for years: people of color in the United States suffer greater harm from air pollution than White people.
The study, from the online journal Science Advances, found that communities of color are disproportionately exposed to higher amounts of a fatal air pollutant.
“Systemic disparity exists at all income levels. Consistent with a large body of evidence, we find that racial disparities are not simply a proxy for economic-based disparities. POC (people of color) at every income level are disproportionately exposed by the majority of sources,” according to the authors of the study.
particulate matter air pollution
(PM 2.5)–a type of pollution caused by microscopic particles that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller and made from solids and liquid droplets. The EPA offers the width of a single strand of hair as an example to understand the particle size.
According to the study, the tiny size of these particles makes them inhalable, threatening damage to the respiratory system, and PM 2.5 is responsible for 85,000 to 200,000 excess or preventable deaths per year in the US.
Black Americans across all economic backgrounds are exposed to “greater than average concentrations” of this type of pollution with an exposure disparity of 21 percent. Latino and Asian Americans are also exposed to PM 2.5 at higher concentrations, while white Americans experience lower than average.