to be central to the climate change fight. For example, heart disease can be caused by particulate matter pollution, according to the American Heart Association, and long-term exposure to these microscopic, inhalable pollutants causes asthma in children, the American Thoracic Society says.
“Health is at the mercy of our global fossil fuel addiction,” said Dr. Renee Salas, an emergency medicine physician and Yerby Fellow at the Harvard University’s Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment, in a media briefing on the findings.Air pollution is killing Americans Air pollution from fossil fuel burning has been found to harm every organ in the body, research shows. According to data from the report, particulate matter caused
32,000 deaths across the U.S. in 2020, and 37% of those were “directly related to fossil fuels,” the authors wrote, noting those could be underestimates. Air pollution needs to be seen as a risk factor for poor health that “can be modified” to improve heart and lung health, the authors suggest.