What contribute to air pollution responsible for more than 2 million deaths each year

Climate changes are the central issues when people argue air pollution. New study suggested that a changing climate can strengthen the effects of air pollution and increase death rates, but this is a small effect and only accounts for a small proportion of current deaths related to air pollution.

The study has been published on 12 July, in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters.

The study showed that around 2.1 million deaths are caused each year by human-caused increases in fine particulates matter (PM2.5) and 470,000 because of human-caused increases in ozone. And many of these deaths are assumed to happen in East Asia and South Asia, where population is high and air pollution is severe.

Based on the study, the number of these deaths that can be attributed to changes in the climate since the industrial era is, however, relatively small. It estimates that a changing climate results in 1500 deaths due to ozone and 2200 deaths related to PM2.5 each year.

Climate change affects air quality in many ways, possibly leading to local increases or decreases in air pollution. For instance, temperature and humidity can change the reaction rates which determine the formation or lifetime of a pollutant, and rainfall can determine the time that pollutants can accumulate.

Higher temperatures can also increase the emissions of organic compounds from trees, which can then react in the atmosphere to form ozone and particulate matter.