What Are the Links between Premature Deaths, Air Pollution and Climate Change on a Global Scale?

Global premature mortality due to anthropogenic outdoor air pollution and the contribution of past climate change(12 page pdf, Raquel A Silva, J Jason West, Yuqiang Zhang, Susan C Anenberg, Jean-Franc¸ois Lamarque, Drew T Shindell, William J Collins, Stig Dalsoren, Greg Faluvegi, Gerd Folberth, Larry W Horowitz, Tatsuya Nagashima, Vaishali Naik, Steven Rumbold, Ragnhild Skeie, Kengo Sudo, Toshihiko Takemura, Daniel Bergmann, Philip Cameron-Smith, Irene Cionni, Ruth M Doherty, Veronika Eyring16, Beatrice Josse17, I A MacKenzie15, David Plummer, Mattia Righi, David S Stevenson, Sarah Strode, Sophie Szopa and Guang Zeng, Environmental Research Letters, Jul. 11, 2013)  

Also quoted here: Researchers estimate over two million deaths annually from air pollution (Institute of Physics (IOP) News, Jul. 12, 2013)  

And here: Air Pollution Responsible for More Than 2 Million Deaths Worldwide Each Year, Experts Estimate(Science Daily, Jul. 12, 2013)
 

Today we review a new estimate of the global burden of premature deaths due to ozone and particulate matter 2.5 which total 2.1 million deaths each year due to PM 2.5 and 470,000 due to ozone. Using a different set of assumptions than used previously, the role of air pollution-related climate change from 1850 to present is seen to be smaller than expected with only 3,700 deaths due to this – not to state that future climate change would be greater.

Key Quotes:

"Our estimates make outdoor air pollution among the most important environmental risk factors for health. Many of these deaths are estimated to occur in East Asia and South Asia, where population is high and air pollution is severe."

“around 470,000 people die each year because of human-caused increases in ozone. It also estimates that around 2.1 million deaths are caused each year by human-caused increases in fine particulate matter (PM2.5)”

“a changing climate results in 1500 deaths due to ozone and 2200 deaths related to PM2.5 each year.”

“Very few studies have attempted to estimate the effects of past climate change on air quality and health. We found that the effects of past climate change are likely to be a very small component of the overall effect of air pollution,"

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