While India and China have been leaving no stone unturned in tackling the notorious Air Pollution, the air quality situation in the United States is not a cakewalk either.
Air Pollution is the bigger killer in the country as compared to deaths due to gunshots and car accidents.
A recent story in the Washington Post clearly states gun violence has caused more deaths than car accidents in at least 21 states in the country.
While this may be a surprising statistic, what’s shocking is that Air Pollution is likely to kill more Americans than both guns and car crashes combined.
As per the data published in care2, in the year 2014, guns and cars caused close to 20 deaths per 100,000 people. On the other hand, air pollution kills 70-130 per 100,000. Here, Baltimore with 130 had the highest number of fatalities.
Every year, more than 200,000 people die every year due to air pollution and only 60,000 are killed from car accidents and guns. Last year, 256 people lost their lives in Utah to car accidents, gun shots killed 260, and a massive 1300 deaths were caused due to air pollution.
While deaths from car accidents and gunshots are visible, air pollution is a silent and an indirect killer. Asthma, heart attacks, stroke, cancer or SIDS is usually the case, and air pollution is the prime trigger. If the United States does not fight the ongoing air pollution, soon the country will be heading towards the road where India and China already stand.
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