Learning English

Air pollution takes three years off life

Air pollution causes the average human life to be three years shorter than it could be, say scientists. Neil and Catherine look at the vocabulary in the news around this story.

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The story

Lung disease, cancer, heart problems and stroke have all been linked to air pollution – particularly man-made emissions from fossil fuels. Now an international group of researchers has used a new method to model the impact on our health. The team believes pollution led to around 8.8 million premature deaths in 2015. That represents an average shortening of life expectancy of nearly three years across the global population.

Key words and phrases

lifespan
how long someone or something lives

• The elephant’s lifespan is longer in the wild than in zoos.
• The lifespan of smartphone batteries is getting better.

shorten
make shorter

• Smoking shortens lives.
• Please shorten my trousers. They're too long.

deadlier
more likely to cause death than something else

• The plague was deadlier than coronavirus.
• Machine guns made WW1 deadlier than previous wars.

To do

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