Identifying sources of deadly air pollution in the United States

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-07/uom-is071520.php


News Release 15-Jul-2020
University of Minnesota


A new study from University of Minnesota researchers provides an unprecedented look at the causes of poor air quality in the United States and its effects on human health.

The research, to be published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, finds that air pollution from sources in the United States leads to 100,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. About half of these deaths are from burning fossil fuels, but researchers also identified less obvious sources of lethal pollution.

"People usually think of power plants and cars, but nowadays, livestock and wood stoves are as big of a problem. It's also our farms and our homes." said Sumil Thakrar, postdoctoral research associate in the Departments of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering and Applied Economics.

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Researchers focused on one particularly harmful pollutant: fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, which is associated with heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and other diseases. In examining the data, they discovered that about half of all PM2.5 air pollution-related deaths are from burning fossil fuels, with the remaining largely from animal agriculture, dust from construction and roads, and burning wood for heating and cooking.

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The researchers also report a surprising finding about the sources of PM2.5 responsible for harming human health. Most people are familiar with PM2.5 as soot -- such as the exhaust from a dirty bus -- or road dust. But PM2.5 also forms from other pollutants like ammonia.

Ammonia is released from animal manure and the fertilization of crops. However, unlike many other sources of PM2.5, ammonia is not regulated to any large extent, despite being responsible for about 20,000 deaths, or one-fifth of all deaths caused by PM2.5 pollution from human activity.

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