US study certifies China clearing air'

Beijing: China appears to be “winning” its war on air pollution, making so much progress that life expectancy could rise by more than two years, according to a US university study. The Chinese government has been waging a battle to clear its skies of smog that has cut life expectancy in some regions and prompted its citizens to buy masks and air purifiers to protect themselves during peak pollution days.

The University of Chicago says in its study released on Monday that while the world’s biggest polluter faces a long road to reach national and international air quality standards, the results “suggest the country is winning its war on pollution”. Based on daily data from more than 200 monitors across China from 2013 to 2017, the analysis found that cities have cut levels of PM 2.5 — the tiny airborne particles considered most harmful to health — by an average of 32 per cent in just four years.

If sustained, such reductions would increase the life expectancy of the average Chinese citizen by 2.4 years relative to 2013. PM 2.5 can play a role in heart disease, stroke, and lung ailments such as emphysema and cancer. Another study published by the university last year had found that air pollution in northern China had cut life expectancy by three years compared with the south of the country.

“We don’t have a historical example of a country achieving such rapid reductions in air pollution. It’s remarkable,” Michael Greenstone the economist and director of the Energy Policy Instit-ute at the University of Chicago who conducted the studies, said. By contrast, it took the US a dozen years and a severe recession to attain similar improvements in air quality after it enacted its 1970 Clean Air Act, he noted. “What these last four years have demonstrated quite loudly is that things can change and they can change rapidly — it just requires political will,” he said.