Deaths in China from air pollution caused by industrial and household coal-burning led to some 366,000 premature deaths in 2013, and this figure will rise in the future with the increase in China's population.

Of this total, 250,000 deaths were caused by industrial sources and 177,000 by households burning coal for cooking and other household uses. Outdoor air pollution was the fifth leading cause of premature death in China in 2013.

Like Us on Facebook

A comprehensive new study led by Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Health Effects Institute (HEI) also forecast as many as 1.3 million annual deaths as attributable to air pollution in China.

The study "Burden of Disease Attributable to Coal-Burning and Other Air Pollution Sources in China" concluded that coal combustion is the single largest source of air pollution-related health impact in China. It was published this August.

The study in both Chinese and English is "the first comprehensive assessment at national and provincial levels of current and future burdens of disease attributable to coal-burning and other major sources of particular matter air pollution."

It's also the first report of the Global Burden of Disease -- Major Air Pollution Sources (GBD MAPS), a multi-year, international collaboration of Tsinghua University, HEI, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and the University of British Columbia.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the Health Effects Institute is an independent, non-profit corporation specializing in research on the health effects of air pollution. IHME is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world's most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them.

"The GBD is the largest and most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide" said Zhou Maigeng, Deputy Director of the National Center for Chronic and Non-communicable Disease Control and Prevention of the China Center for Disease Control.

He is also lead author of the GBD 2013 Chinese analysis published in the British medical journal The Lancet in October 2015.

"Based on Chinese data, we found that outdoor air pollution was the fifth leading cause of premature death in China in 2013."

The new study is part of the GBD MAPS Working Group, and took advantage of enhanced satellite data and China's ever-expanding network of air pollution monitors. The study was also the first to estimate the impact of different air pollution sources by province.

"Coal-burning was the most important contributor to ambient PM2.5, causing an estimated 366,000 premature deaths in 2013," said Professor Wang Shuxiao of Tsinghua University, a lead investigator for the study.

"Industrial sources and household solid fuel combustion, from both coal and non-coal emissions, were the largest sectoral contributors to disease burden attributable to ambient PM2.5 in China, responsible for 250,000 and 177,000 premature deaths, respectively."

The study also pursued an estimate of future health burdens into 2030 based on four air pollution control and energy efficiency scenarios.

It said the growth of China's population and their likelihood of extended lifespans will only increase the number of deaths from cardiovascular and lung diseases despite reductions in exposure to deadly PM2.5.

The GBD MAPS analysis forecasts some 1.3 million annual deaths as attributable to air pollution.

"Air pollution health burdens will continue to be a challenge, but the potential for future health benefits from further control is enormous," said Robert O'Keefe, HEI Vice President.

Tagsair pollution, deaths, v, household coal-burning, industrial coal-burning, Tsinghua University, Burden of Disease Attributable to Coal-Burning and Other Air Pollution Sources in China, Health Effects Institute