Air pollution tied to 91,000 premature deaths yearly

Key takeaways:

Air pollution from gas and oil was tied to significant totals of premature death, childhood asthma and cancer.

Certain diverse groups, including the Black and Asian populations, were especially affected.

Air pollution from oil and gas in the U.S. contributes to tens of thousands of deaths, chronic diseases and health complications annually, according to a new study published in Science Advances .

“We don’t want to claim to have discovered these inequities in exposure. The communities living close to busy roadways or nearby petrochemical plants due to high rates of permitting know about this unfair exposure,” Elois Marais, PhD, an associate professor of physical geography at University College London in the U.K., told Healio. “What we hope our study will do is suppor