Do air pollution control measures actually improve health? All signs point to yes

Major cities around the world are implementing many protocols to prevent air pollution, marking a significant effort to improve air quality in many places. But they are not the only ones. The car manufacturers themselves are working on this, and they have managed to considerably reduce the emission of these harmful gases thanks to projects that improve engines and to the shift in trend towards electric mobility.

The question that arises is whether all these measures help to reduce the health risk for people. To answer this question, the study ““Health benefits of reduced transport emissions from on-road vehicles in the United States from 2008 to 2017” has been published. Obviously, this narrows its scope of research to the United States, but it is a good example of what has been achieved by reducing polluting gases in that country.

A study carried out by Harvard University

This work was carried out by Harvard University, whose research team worked with data recorded over 10 years, specifically from 2008 to 2017. Over this period one can observe a very significant decrease in the number of deaths caused by pollution generated by cars in US cities.

According to the study, in 2008 27,700 deaths caused by air pollution were recorded. By contrast, in 2017 this figure fell to 19,800 cases. This decline of some 8,000 deaths per year is linked to policies to reduce polluting emissions, to engine improvements and to the shift in fuel trends, with the incorporation of electricity as an energy source.

Besides the effects on the health of Americans, the study records an increase in the benefits obtained from these changes in mobility trends. The benefits, which depend on factors such as lower costs and other factors such as fewer related medical treatments, amount to some 270 billion dollars over the period studied.

The results from that date onwards are expected to be even better and to show fewer deaths due to pollution, and other benefits for the automotive sector and for health may be discussed. For the time being, it is considered that without these changes in polluting emissions the number of deaths would have multiplied by 2.5, reaching almost 50,000 deaths per year.

In Europe there is no similar study yet, but we hope that with the steps taken in recent years, a considerable reduction in the number of people affected by the various diseases caused by urban pollution will be achieved.