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Longevity Atlas
Environment

Clean air: PM2.5 and indoor pollution

Fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) causes 250,000 premature deaths a year in Europe and shortens life expectancy by 1–2 years — more than alcohol. Indoor air (cooking, fireplaces, candles) is often worse than outdoors.

Impact 3/54/5Effort: free, today
First step today

Today: check your area's PM2.5 (e.g. aqicn.org), and if it's above 10, put a HEPA purifier in the bedroom.

How

A HEPA air purifier in the bedroom and where you spend most time (cuts PM2.5 50–80%); an extractor or open window when cooking; avoid wood burning and candles; a PM2.5 monitor (€30) for awareness; don't run along busy roads at rush hour; on smoggy days filter and closed windows.

Evidence

Pope 2009: every 10 µg/m³ drop in PM2.5 adds 0.6 years of life expectancy (US cities, 20 years). Lelieveld 2019 (Eur Heart J): air pollution causes 790,000 deaths a year in Europe, life expectancy –2.2 years. RCTs: a HEPA filter improves vascular function within 2 weeks and lowers blood pressure (–3 mmHg) and inflammation markers. WHO 2021 limit: 5 µg/m³ annual mean — Budapest ~13.

Goals

Healthy yearsHeart, blood sugarBrain, memory

Sources

  1. Lelieveld J et al. Cardiovascular disease burden from ambient air pollution in Europe reassessed using novel hazard ratio functions. Eur Heart J (2019) ↗
  2. Pope CA et al. Fine-particulate air pollution and life expectancy in the United States. NEJM (2009) ↗

Last reviewed: 6 September 2026

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