Environmental Science and Technology, one of the world’s top environmental science journals, has named “Improving Global Estimates of Particulate Air Pollution” as its Top Science Article of 2012.
Michael Brauer
Michael Brauer, a Professor in the School of Population & Public Health, was one of the lead authors of this paper. The paper was written as part of the 2010 WHO study update on improving global estimates of people’s exposure to fine particles of air pollution. The researchers reported that, in 2005, 89% of the world’s population lived in places with average levels of fine particulate matter that exceeded WHO guidelines. Further analysis placed particulate matter pollution among the top 10 risk factors that led to long-term disability and shortened lifespan in 2010.
The study helped inform another team’s estimate of how many people died or were disabled in 2010 as a result of these particles (The Lancet). That study found that particulate air pollution caused 3.2 million deaths worldwide in 2010. One of The Lancet paper authors also identified the approach in Dr. Brauer’s paper as an example of “state of the art” modeling methods.