North China's pollution costs its residents 5 years of their lives

The life expectancy for residents of North China is apparently lower than that of people living in South China, according to a new report. A study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that living in South China could add around five years onto a person's life expectancy in comparison to a North China resident due to the difference in air quality.

North China is renowned for heavy coal use, which produces vast amounts of smog and air pollution. Coal-fired energy plants in the north release vast amounts of particulate pollution, which is severely damaging to human health.

The researchers based the study on air pollution data that was collected between 1981 and 2011 by official Chinese sources. The results highlighted that those living to the north of the Huai River have a lower life expectancy. The 500 million people who live in the region will lose around 2.5 billion life years due to the harmful air pollution levels.

Michael Greenstone, professor of Environmental Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that the research "highlights that in developing countries there's a trade-off in increasing incomes today and protecting public health and environmental quality, and it highlights the fact that the public health costs are larger than we had thought".

The researchers found that the larger quantities of particulate matter in the air throughout North China, when compared with the south, is responsible for lowering the life expectancy of residents from birth. On average life expectancy is reduced by three years for every 100 micrograms of particulate pollution per cubic metres present above the average found in South China.

The levels of dangerous particulates in North China were found to be around 55 per cent higher than in regions south of the Huai River. This results in higher levels of lung and heart diseases in people throughout the north of the country.

It is hoped that China's implementation of a carbon cap system will reduce the levels of dangerous air pollution present throughout the northern regions and so improve the health of residents.