Air Pollution Causes 40,000 Premature Deaths Each Year in Alpine Countries
As part of an assessment prepared for the World Health Organization, Nino Künzli and coauthors estimated health risk attributable to PM10 pollution in three European countries, Austria, France, and Switzerland.
Using functions of health risk obtained from epidemiological studies, the authors estimate that air pollution caused six percent of total mortality, or more than 40,000 cases each year, with about half associated with motor vehicle pollution.
In addition, the study estimated that 47,000 new cases of chronic bronchitis in adults, more than 500,000 episodes of bronchitis in children, and more than a million asthma attacks are attributable to air pollution each year.
Despite uncertainties inherent in risk assessment, this analysis highlights the magnitude of the public health burden attributable to current levels of air pollution.
Kunzli, N., Kaiser, R., Medina, S., Studnicka, M., Chanel, O., Filliger, P., Herry, M., Horak, F. Jr., Puybonnieux-Texier, V., Quenel, P., Schneider, J., Seethader, J., Vergnaud, J-C., and Sommer, H. Public-Health Impact of Outdoor and Traffic-Related Air Pollution: A European Assessment. The Lancet, Vol. 356, pp. 795-801, September 2, 2000. The National Library of Medicine [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi] publishes the abstract online.
