Inequality of household consumption and air pollution-related deaths in China.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31554811.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-12254-x and PMC identifier 6761204.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Substantial quantities of air pollution and related health impacts are ultimately attributable to household consumption. However, how consumption pattern affects air pollution impacts remains unclear. Here we show, of the 1.08 (0.74-1.42) million premature deaths due to anthropogenic PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure in China in 2012, 20% are related to household direct emissions through fuel use and 24% are related to household indirect emissions embodied in consumption of goods and services. Income is strongly associated with air pollution-related deaths for urban residents in which health impacts are dominated by indirect emissions. Despite a larger and wealthier urban population, the number of deaths related to rural consumption is higher than that related to urban consumption, largely due to direct emissions from solid fuel combustion in rural China. Our results provide quantitative insight to consumption-based accounting of air pollution and related deaths and may inform more effective and equitable clean air policies in China.
Medical subject headings
- Air Pollution
- Environmental Exposure
- Mortality, Premature
- Rural Health
- Socioeconomic Factors
- Urban Health