By analyzing life expectancy data from China, where a policy has led to significantly more airborne particulate matter (PM) north of the Huai River than south of the river, researchers estimate that sustained exposure to PM smaller than 10 microns (PM10) reduces life expectancy by 0.6 years for every 10 μg/m3 of PM10, largely due to increased cardiorespiratory mortality, suggesting that more than 4.5 billion people worldwide live with exposure to unsafe air pollution levels.
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Article #16-16784: "New evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China's Huai River Policy," by Avraham Ebenstein, Maoyong Fan, Michael Greenstone, Guojun He, and Maigeng Zhou.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences