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Home fires, farm fumes are leading causes of air-pollution deaths

Surprising airborne suspects have researchers questioning if all pollution is equally deadly

air pollution death map

FATAL FUMES  The number of deaths caused by air pollution varies across the globe, researchers found using satellite data and a computer simulation. The color coding, indicating few deaths (gray) to many (red), shows the highest mortality in some parts of Asia.

J. Lelieveld et al/Nature 2015

By Beth Mole

- More than 2 years ago

There’s no doubt air pollution is a killer, causing more than 3 million deaths worldwide each year.