Air pollution shortens lifespan, Toronto study finds
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Air pollution shortens lifespan, Toronto study finds
SOURCE: Toronto Globe & Mail
July 11, 2004 - Air pollution leads to an estimated 1,700 premature deaths each year in Toronto and causes 6,000 additional hospital admissions, says a new study by the city's Public Health Department.
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The Toronto study corroborates a recent study from London, England in which King's College found that extreme cases of air pollution exposure can shorten a lifespand by as much as a decade.Health officials say Toronto's air, easily the most polluted in the country, is so dirty it is killing many residents and needs to be cleaned up. "These premature deaths and hospital admissions are preventable, and they likely wouldn't have occurred when they did without the exposure to air pollution," said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the city's acting medical officer of health.
Although the study was unable to pinpoint any specific individuals who were killed by pollution, Yaffe said the likely victims were people who were already suffering from chronic health conditions. This includes those with heart problems, people with asthma, the elderly and young children.
The study was based on death and hospitalization data for 1999, the most recent year for which complete information is available, and took into account pollution levels for each day of the year.There is little mystery about the source of air pollution in Toronto. It is caused by the burning of fossil fuels from the hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks and buses that stream into the city daily, along with emissions from power plants, industries and space heating.
City and public health officials who released the study Thursday used it to argue for more provincial funding for the Toronto Transit Commission to encourage reduced automobile use, along with tighter land-use controls to curb sprawl. The new study is a more refined version of one the city released four years ago that estimated about 1,000 people died annually from exposure to Toronto's air.