A new study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that deaths related to air pollution in the US were nearly halved between 1990 and 2010. The open-access study is published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics . The team’s analyses showed that deaths related to air pollution exposure in the US decreased by about 47%, dropping from about 135,000 deaths in 1990 to 71,000 in 2010. Improvements in air quality and public health in the US coincided with increased federal air quality regulations, and have taken place despite increases in population, energy and electricity use, and vehicle miles traveled between 1990 and 2010. Trends in the total mortality burden (black) for PM 2.5 (a, as a total of ischemic heart (STROKE) + chronic obstructive (COPD) + lung cancer (LC)) and O 3 (b, chronic respiratory disease (RESP)), and mortality burdens […]