2023-09-07 05:45:00
“Air pollution worse than alcohol and tobacco”; “Health: air pollution more deadly than smoking and alcohol”; “Fine particles even more dangerous than tobacco and alcohol!”… It was difficult, in recent days, to escape these headlines, taken from a report published by the University’s Energy Policy Institute of Chicago (EPIC) on air quality around the world, and repeated over and over on the Internet. However, if fine particles emitted by motor vehicles, industry and fires are undeniably toxic for our bodies, it is difficult to conclude from this work that these pollutants would be more harmful than alcohol and cigarettes – in any case, not in France, nor in most of the richest countries.
What exactly does this study say? At the global level, the impact of fine particles on overall life expectancy is “comparable to the effect of tobacco, three times greater than that of alcohol, five times greater than that of car accidents, and seven times greater higher than that of AIDS”, note the authors of the report. But this burden mainly falls on Asia and Africa: these two continents alone account for more than 90% of the years of life lost due to atmospheric pollution. Compared to just over 4% in the United States and Europe, where the situation has improved significantly in recent decades.
As the authors of the report point out, the European air quality directive has made it possible to reduce this pollution by almost a quarter since 1998. On our continent, the most exposed populations are also largely found in the former Eastern countries, as well as in the industrial regions of northern Italy, around Milan.
Fine particle pollution
© / afp.com/Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sabrina BLANCHARD
In France, air pollution causes 40,000 deaths per year
In comparison with these regions, the situation in the rest of Europe, and particularly in France, appears much better. In our country, the level of fine particles reaches on average 9.2 μg/m3 of air according to data collected by American researchers. This is a level lower than the new standards that the European Commission would like to set by 2030, of 10 μg/m3. Reaching the threshold recommended by the World Health Organization, of 5 μg/m3, would allow us to gain 0.4 additional years of life expectancy on average per person – compared to, for example, 6.8 additional years in Bangladesh, or 2 .5 years in China.
According to the latest data from Public Health France, air pollution is responsible for 40,000 deaths each year in our country. This is still far too much – but much less than cigarettes: in comparison, tobacco kills 75,000 people every year in France. And it’s even less than alcohol, the cause of 49,000 direct victims, not counting indirect damage, road accidents or violence, in which alcoholic beverages are very often involved.
This does not mean, of course, that we should not continue efforts to improve air quality. Firstly because these data relate to the whole of France, and for the evolution of the quantities of pollutants present in the air, are only averages. As the work of American researchers shows, residents of the Paris region, the north of France and the metropolis of Lyon remain more exposed to fine particles than those in the rest of the country. Pollution whose consequences go well beyond premature deaths, since various research studies in recent years have pointed to possible links between air pollution, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, or even with the appearance of cases of autism when mothers are significantly exposed during pregnancy.
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