By Syndicated Content in News — Sep 28, 2024

Cutting Pollution Could Save Tens of Thousands of Lives

Sarju Ganatra, a cardiologist at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Massachusetts, says reducing climate pollution can improve our health.

Image courtesy of Nikoli Afina.

This article originally appeared in Yale Climate Connections

Breathing in vehicle exhaust, power plant fumes, and other fossil fuel pollution can harm people’s lungs and hearts.

Ganatra: “Climate change and environmental pollution impacts us gravely.”

So Sarju Ganatra, a cardiologist at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Massachusetts, says reducing climate pollution can improve our health.

The U.S. has committed to cutting its climate-warming emissions to about half of 2005 levels by the end of this decade.

Ganatra and his team used computer models to estimate the health benefits of achieving that target.

They found that in the year 2050 alone, it could result in almost a million avoided asthma attacks, more than 40,000 avoided heart attacks, and more than 30,000 avoided deaths.

That’s just a snapshot of the projected health benefits for a single year – and the impact over time will be much larger.

So Ganatra says that legislation such as the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which helps the country achieve its climate targets, not only helps limit global warming.

Ganatra: “I think it will lead to significant improvement in our own health. … Planetary health is not separate from our health. We are integrated. We are one. We are not separate, and we should not see it otherwise.”

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media