Eating less meat can help reduce 75,000 premature deaths related to air pollution in China, study finds
- Growing appetite for meat since the 1980s has seen ammonia gas emissions from the agricultural sector increase more than 60 per cent, research shows
- Ammonia released into the air reacts with other pollutants to form the fine particulate PM2.5, which can travel into the lungs and bloodstream, cause respiratory and heart problems
Reducing the over-consumption of meat could help lower the concentration of a major air pollutant and avoid 75,000 premature deaths in China, a team led by Hong Kong researchers has found.
Professor Amos Tai Pui-kuen of Chinese University, who helmed the study, said ammonia gas emissions from the agricultural sector had increased more than 60 per cent since the 1980s, when Chinese people started to eat larger amounts of meat.
“China’s population has increased sharply in the past 30 years, and the amount of meat consumed by each person has also grown, from around 30 grams per day to more than 150 grames a day,” Tai said. “Hongkongers eat even more, about 200 grams per person each day.”
People in large cities, including Hong Kong, were also disproportionately contributing to the problem, making up the bulk of China’s meat eaters, he added.
Tai led the joint study between Chinese University and the University of Exeter in Britain, which was published earlier this month in the journal Nature Food.
The study examined how reducing meat consumption could improve air quality, a step forward from previous research that mainly targeted fossil fuel burning to tackle the rampant air pollution problem in China.
The growing appetite for meat has seen production in China soar 433 per cent between 1980 and 2010 – from 15 to 80 megatons – which increases the amount of animal waste and fertiliser needed to grow the corns and beans used as livestock feed, both of which emit ammonia.
According to Tai, that ammonia released into the air reacts with other pollutants to form the fine particulate PM2.5, which are small enough to travel into the lungs and even the bloodstream.
Long-term health effects include respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, as well as increased risk of heart problems.
Ammonia released from farming animals has, since the 1980s, contributed to 20 per cent of the increase in air pollutants across China, leading to about 90,000 premature deaths, the researchers found through computer modelling.
But reducing consumption to a reasonable level could in turn decrease PM2.5 by 20 per cent, leading to 75,000 fewer premature deaths, Tai said.
Tai cited mainland Chinese dietary guidelines from 2016 that recommended the average person consume about 40 to 75 grams of meat each day, saying that amount was about the same size as the palm of one’s hand.
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“Of course, we can’t undo the damage that has already been done, but what we can do is to move to a diet of mainly vegetables with a much smaller proportion of meat,” he said.
Professor Lam Hon-ming, from Chinese University’s School of Life Sciences and a co-author of the paper, suggested in addition to individuals cutting their meat consumption, governments should also step up education to promote a healthier diet.
“Most importantly, we hope residents make the choice not just for their health, but also for the health of the environment,” he said.
Tai added that government campaigns to cut down on meat consumption could be used in conjunction with other air pollution reduction policies to maximise efficiency.
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Tom Ng Hon-lam, a campaigner at Greenpeace in Hong Kong, echoed Lam’s suggestion for a government drive to promote either vegetarian or a less meat-heavy diet. He also said residents could start small if they wanted to try cutting meat from their diets.
“It can be daunting, but people can try taking a step-by-step approach,” Ng said. “It can be as simple as just doing one meatless meal a month, then once a week, while cooking your own meals can also help.”
