Did you know that trees prevent $7 billion in health costs every year by filtering air pollution? New research says the closer you can live to trees, the better off you are.
Air pollution now kills around seven million people every year globally, according to the World Health Organization. In the journal of Environmental Pollution, forester Dave Nowak and colleagues found that trees prevented 850 human deaths and 670,000 cases of acute respiratory symptoms in 2010 in USA alone. That was related to 17 tonnes of air pollution removed by trees and forests, which physically intercept particulate matter and absorb gases through their leaves. |