Ex-health minister endorses finding China's smog kills 350,000 a year

Air pollution causes 350,000 to 500,000 premature deaths on the mainland a year, according to an article co-written by a former health minister.

Chen Zhu, now president of the Chinese Medical Association, and three other authors endorsed the estimate in a commentary published in The Lancet medical journal last month.

The article, titled "China tackles the heath effects of air pollution", cited estimates from the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning and Fudan University.

The authors said China spewed out more of the main pollutants than any other country, but that "prevention and control of environmental pollution in China is difficult because there are multiple pollution sources and pollutants across cities and regions".

Beijing has committed US$277.5 billion over five years to preventing and controlling air pollution and if targets are met 200,000 fewer people would die prematurely each year, according to The Lancet article. It said the main polluters in the country were industry, coal and vehicles.

However, the estimate the article endorsed - that air pollution causes 350,000 to 500,000 premature deaths each year - was far lower than another estimate in a study published in the same magazine the year before that air pollution was responsible for 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010 alone and the loss of 25 million disability-adjusted life-years.