Pollution causes 40 percent of deaths

ITHACA, N.Y., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- A U.S. meta-analysis of 120 published studies found that water, air and soil pollution

causes 40 percent of human deaths worldwide.

David Pimentel, of Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., and a team of Cornell graduate students

examined data on the effects of population growth, malnutrition and various kinds of

environmental degradation on human diseases. They found environmental degradation,

coupled with world population growth, are major causes of malnourishment and the cause

rapid increases in human diseases.

Currently, some 57 percent of the world population of about 6.5 billion suffers malnourishment,

compared to 20 percent of the world population of 2.5 billion in 1950, said Pimentel. About 1.2 billion lack clean water and waterborne infections account for 80 percent of all infectious diseases, explained Pimentel.

Increased water pollution creates breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which kill 1.2 million to 2.7 million people a year, while air pollution kills about 3 million a year and unsanitary living conditions account for more than 5 million deaths each year, found the analysis published in the journal Human Ecology online and published in print in December.