Academic University of Exeter (England) and the University of Hong Kong found that the massive use of meat leads to air pollution and, as a result, 75 thousand premature deaths every year in China alone. This is reported in the article published in the journal Nature Food.
Scientists have found that meat production in China for the period 1980-2010 increased by 433 percent, from 15 to 80 million tons. Only a small proportion of this increase is due to population, and an increase of 60 million tons was caused by a change in the diet. Ammonia emissions have doubled over the same period, and an increase of 63 percent was due to the increase in meat consumption.
Based on these data, researchers appreciated that five percent of deaths in China (out of 1.83 million in 2010) are associated with solid particles in the air, the source of which has become animal husbandry. The study showed that if the Chinese diet was less meat, it would reduce emissions in agriculture and reduce the harmful effects of air pollution on the health of the entire population. In this case, ammonia emissions would decrease by 2.1 theragram, and 74 805 deaths could be avoided.
The growth of meat production worldwide over the past 50 years is most noticeable in East Asia, especially in China. At the same time, livestock farms are one of the main sources of environmental pollution, since manure and fertilizers used for feed plants, highlight a large amount of ammonia. The deterioration of air quality, in turn, is associated with respiratory diseases, including lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases.