reduce earnings and labor force participation: Adam Isen et al., “Every Breath You Take—Every Dollar You’ll Make: The Long-Term Consequences of the Clean Air Act of 1970” (National Bureau of Economic Research working paper no. 19858, September 2015), https://doi.org/10.3386/w19858.
E-ZPass: Janet Currie and W. Reed Walker, “Traffic Congestion and Infant Health: Evidence from E-ZPass” (National Bureau of Economic Research working paper no. 15413, April 2012), https://doi.org/10.3386/w15413.
melting Arctic ice remodeled Asian weather patterns: Yufei Zou et al., “Arctic Sea Ice, Eurasia Snow, and Extreme Winter Haze in China,” Science Advances 3, no. 3 (March 2017), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1602751.
peak Air Quality Index of 993: Steve LeVine, “Pollution Score: Beijing 993, New York 19,” Quartz, January 14, 2013, https://qz.com/43298/pollution-score-beijing-993-new-york-19.
new and unstudied kind of smog: Lijian Han et al., “Multicontaminant Air Pollution in Chinese Cities,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 96 (February 2018): pp. 233–42E, http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.17.195560; Fred Pearce, “How a ‘Toxic Cocktail’ Is Posing a Troubling Health Risk in China’s Cities,” Yale Environment 360, April 17, 2018, https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-a-toxic-cocktail-is-posing-a-troubling-health-risk-in-chinese-cities.
1.37 million deaths: Jun Liu et al., “Estimating Adult Mortality Attributable to PM2.5 Exposure in China with Assimilated PM2.5 Concentrations Based on a Ground Monitoring Network,” Science of the Total Environment 568 (October 2016): pp. 1253–62, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.165.
the air around San Francisco: Michelle Robertson, “It’s Not Just Fog Turning the Sky Gray: SF Air Quality Is Three Times Worse than Beijing,” SF Gate, August 23, 2018.
In Seattle: In August 2018, the mayor’s office tweeted, “Today’s air quality has been declared UNHEALTHY FOR ALL GROUPS. Stay inside, limit outdoor work, and try not to drive.”
Air Quality Index reached 999: Rachel Feltman, “Air Pollution in Delhi Is Literally off the Charts,” Popular Science, November 8, 2016.
more than two packs of cigarettes: Richard A. Muller and Elizabeth A. Muller, “Air Pollution and Cigarette Equivalence,” Berkeley Earth, http://berkeleyearth.org/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equivalence.
patient surge of 20 percent: Durgesh Nandan Jha, “Pollution Causing Arthritis to Flare Up, 20% Rise in Patients at Hospitals,” The Times of India, November 11, 2017.
cars crashed in pileups: “Blinding Smog Causes 24-Vehicle Pile-up on Expressway near Delhi,” NDTV, November 8, 2017.
United canceled flights: Catherine Ngai, Jamie Freed, and Henning Gloystein, “United Resumes Newark-Delhi Flights After Halt Due to Poor Air Quality,” Reuters, November 12, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airlines-india-pollution/united-resumes-newark-delhi-flights-after-halt-due-to-poor-air-quality-idUSKBN1DC142?il=0.
even short-term exposure: Benjamin D. Horne et al., “Short-Term Elevation of Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Acute Lower Respiratory Infection,” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 198, no. 6, (September 2018), https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201709-1883OC.
nine million premature deaths: Pamela Das and Richard Horton, “Pollution, Health, and the Planet: Time for Decisive Action,” The Lancet 391, no. 10119 (October 2017): pp. 407–8, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32588-6.
prevalence of stroke: Kuam Ken Lee et al., “Air Pollution and Stroke,” Journal of Stroke 20, no. 1 (January 2018): pp. 2–11, https://doi.org/10.5853/jos.2017.02894.
heart disease: R. D. Brook et al., “Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease: An Update to the Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association,” Circulation 121, no. 21 (June 2010): pp. 2331–78, https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0b013e3181dbece1.
cancer of all kinds: Kate Kelland and Stephanie Nebehay, “Air Pollution a Leading Cause of Cancer—U.N. Agency,” Reuters, October 17, 2013, www.reuters.com/article/us-cancer-pollution/air-pollution-a-leading-cause-of-cancer-u-n-agency-idUSBRE99G0BB20131017.
acute and chronic respiratory diseases: Michael Guarnieri and John R. Balmes, “Outdoor Air Pollution and Asthma,” The Lancet 383, no. 9928 (May 2014), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60617-6.
adverse pregnancy outcomes: Jessica Glenza, “Millions of Premature Births Could Be Linked to Air Pollution, Study Finds,” The Guardian, February 16, 2017.
worse memory, attention, and vocabulary: Nicole Wetsman, “Air Pollution Might Be the New Lead,” Popular Science, April 5, 2018.
ADHD: Oddvar Myhre et al., “Early Life Exposure to Air Pollution Particulate Matter (PM) as Risk Factor for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Need for Novel Strategies for Mechanisms and Causalities,” Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 354 (September 2018): pp. 196–214, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.taap.2018.03.015.
autism spectrum disorders: Raanan Raz et al., “Autism Spectrum Disorder and Particulate Matter Air Pollution Before, During, and After Pregnancy: A Nested Case-Control Analysis Within the Nurses’ Health Study II Cohort,” Environmental Health Perspectives 123, no. 3 (March 2015): pp. 264–70, https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408133.
damage the development of neurons: Sam Brockmeyer and Amedeo D’Angiulli, “How Air Pollution Alters Brain Development: The Role of Neuroinflammation,” Translational Neuroscience 7 (March 2016): pp. 24–30, https://doi.org/10.1515/tnsci-2016-0005.
deform your DNA: Frederica Perera et al., “Shorter Telomere Length in Cord Blood Associated with Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure: Benefits of Intervention,” Environment International 113 (April 2018): pp. 335–40, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.01.005.
98 percent of cities: World Health Organization, “WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database,” 2016, www.who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/databases/cities/en.
95 percent of the world’s population: Health Effects Institute, “State of Global Air 2018: A Special Report on Global Exposure to Air Pollution and Its Disease Burden” (Boston, 2018), p. 3, www.stateofglobalair.org/sites/default/files/soga-2018-report.pdf.
more than a million Chinese each year: Aaron J. Cohen et al., “Estimates and 25-Year Trends of the Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Ambient Air Pollution: An Analysis of Data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2015,” The Lancet 389, no. 10082 (May 2017): pp. 1907–18, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30505-6.
one out of six deaths: Das and Horton, “Pollution, Health, and the Planet,” https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32588-6.
“Great Pacific garbage patch”: Smithsonian calls it more of a “trash soup.”