Eating less meat can help reduce 75,000 premature deaths related to air pollution in China, study finds
- Growing appetite for meat since the 1980s has seen ammonia gas emissions from the agricultural sector increase more than 60 per cent, research shows
- Ammonia released into the air reacts with other pollutants to form the fine particulate PM2.5, which can travel into the lungs and bloodstream, cause respiratory and heart problems
Reducing the over-consumption of meat could help lower the concentration of a major air pollutant and avoid 75,000 premature deaths in China, a team led by Hong Kong researchers has found.
Professor Amos Tai Pui-kuen of Chinese University, who helmed the study, said ammonia gas emissions from the agricultural sector had increased more than 60 per cent since the 1980s, when Chinese people started to eat larger amounts of meat.
“China’s population has increased sharply in the past 30 years, and the amount of meat consumed by each person has also grown, from around 30 grams per day to more than 150 grames a day,” Tai said. “Hongkongers eat even more, about 200 grams per person each day.”
People in large cities, including Hong Kong, were also disproportionately contributing to the problem, making up the bulk of China’s meat eaters, he added.
Tai led the joint study between Chinese University and the University of Exeter in Britain, which was published earlier this month in the journal Nature Food.