Air pollution greatest global threat to human health, says benchmark study

It's very well written and illustrated.

Big takeaways:

* Population-weighted findings. Air pollution is a bigger public health threat than (say) tobacco and alcohol not because it's worse for you individually (although it's terrible), but because the regions most affected are so densely populated

* Regulatory policy really works. "After periods of industrialization led to pollution that choked Europe and the United States decades ago, the two regions have largely been successfully creating and enforcing strong pollution laws. In the United States, legislative measures like the Clean Air Act have helped to reduce pollution by 64.9 percent since 1970, extending the average lifespan by 1.4 years" and similar improvements began in Europe 25 years ago, and even in China 10 years ago

Global life expectancy reduction due to

Air pollution: 2.3 years

Tobacco smoke: 2.2 years

Malnutrition: 1.6 years