
Reminding
the significance of protecting trees, a study conducted by the U.S.
Forest Service has showed that trees save approximately 850 lives
every year. Besides, they also help people suffering from acute
respiratory distress, approximately 670,000 cases per year. The study
says that trees save people by removing pollution from the air.
The
study was conducted by the National Forest Service (NFS) taking into
account of the fact that hundreds of deaths in the United States are
attributable to air pollution. In the U.S., 130,000 deaths related to
particulate matter and 4,700 deaths related to ozone occurred in 2005
as a result of air pollution.
The health consequences from air pollution considered in the study were pulmonary, cardiac, vascular and neurological damages.
Even more amazing is the part of the study that shows the fact that pollution cleared by trees - approximately 17.4 million tons of it in 2010 - amounts to one percent improvement of air quality.
Of course, this improvement of breathable air is more significant for urban areas than rural ones.
"In terms of impacts on human health, trees in urban areas are substantially more significant than rural trees due to their nearness to people. We found that in general, the greater the tree cover, the greater the pollution removal, and the greater the removal and population density, the greater the value of human health benefit," the NFS scientists stated.
The NFS reports that this density ranges from 2.6 percent in North Dakota, to 88.9 percent in New Hampshire.
The study was published in the journal Environmental Pollution
Source: Medindia
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