Air pollution from burning coal in China, in the form of particulates, is likely shortening the lives of people exposed to it, UPI quoted researchers as saying. A study co-authored by an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, based on long-term data compiled for the first time, projects 500 million Chinese who live north of the Huai River are set to lose an aggregate 2.5 billion years of life expectancy because of extensive regional use of coal to power boilers for heating. The researchers found very different life-expectancy figures for an otherwise similar population south of the Huai River, where government policies are less supportive of coal-powered heating, an MIT release said Tuesday.
