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Zhou Z, Shan J, Zu J, Chen Z, Ma W, Li L, Xu J

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Authors not listed · 2016

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Environmental risk factors collectively cause nearly 60% of global deaths, highlighting the critical importance of addressing all environmental health threats.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

This comprehensive 2016 Global Burden of Disease study analyzed 79 environmental, behavioral, and occupational risk factors affecting human health worldwide from 1990 to 2015. The research found that all studied risks combined accounted for 57.8% of global deaths and 41.2% of disability-adjusted life years, with environmental pollutants like ambient particulate matter ranking among the top 10 contributors to global disease burden.

Why This Matters

This landmark study provides crucial context for understanding EMF risks within the broader landscape of environmental health threats. While EMF exposure wasn't specifically analyzed as a separate risk factor, the study's methodology and findings demonstrate how environmental exposures can contribute significantly to global disease burden. The research shows that ambient particulate matter alone caused 103.1 million disability-adjusted life years in 2015, ranking as the 6th largest contributor to global health impacts. What this means for you: if a single environmental pollutant can cause such massive health impacts, it underscores why we should take all environmental exposures seriously, including EMF. The study's finding that environmental risks generally decline with socioeconomic development suggests that EMF exposure may follow different patterns, as wireless technology adoption often increases with economic prosperity.

Exposure Information

Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.

Cite This Study
Unknown (2016). Zhou Z, Shan J, Zu J, Chen Z, Ma W, Li L, Xu J.
Show BibTeX
@article{zhou_z_shan_j_zu_j_chen_z_ma_w_li_l_xu_j_ce3925,
  author = {Unknown},
  title = {Zhou Z, Shan J, Zu J, Chen Z, Ma W, Li L, Xu J},
  year = {2016},
  doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31679-8},
  
}
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31679-8PubMed: 27733284

Quick Questions About This Study

The study found that 79 behavioral, environmental, and occupational risk factors combined accounted for 57.8% of all global deaths in 2015, representing millions of preventable deaths from environmental exposures worldwide.
Ambient particulate matter pollution ranked as the 6th largest contributor to global disability-adjusted life years, causing 103.1 million DALYs in 2015, more than household air pollution or high cholesterol levels.
Environmental risks showed mixed trends: unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, and childhood undernutrition each decreased by over 25%, while occupational risks and drug use increased by more than 25% globally.
The study found that traditional environmental risks like unsafe water and household air pollution declined with higher socioeconomic development, while metabolic risks like obesity increased with economic prosperity.
Researchers used comparative risk assessment framework analyzing 388 risk-outcome pairs with convincing evidence, extracting data from randomized trials, cohorts, surveys, and satellite data to estimate attributable deaths and disability.