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Research indicates increased life expectancy if the fight against pollution in Chinese cities continues at the same pace

China's war on pollution is beginning to show its first results. Just four years after implementing drastic measures to combat pollution, China already sees positive impacts of the fight on the life expectancy of its largest (and most polluted) cities, according to a survey released by the University of Chicago, made with data of the National Environmental Monitoring Center of China.

The parameters used are very similar to Western ones and show reductions of more than 30% in the level of pollution in some cities, such as Beijing, Shijiazhuang and Baoding. On average, cities have reduced the concentration of particulates in the air by about 32 percent over the past four years.

If this rate of reduction is maintained, this could represent significant improvements in the quality and life expectancy of the population of large Chinese cities. The national plan released by China in 2014 called for reductions in the concentration of fine particulate pollution by at least 10%, depending on the cities. In some, this percentage was higher, as in the case of Beijing, whose target was 25%. There alone, US$ 120 billion were invested for this purpose.

To achieve its clean-up targets, China banned the construction of new coal-fired thermoelectric power plants in the country's most polluted regions, which included the Beijing area. Existing plants had to reduce their emissions and, when this was not possible, coal was replaced by natural gas.

Cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have restricted the circulation of cars on the streets and coal mines have closed across the country. Iron and steel production capacity was also reduced. Other measures were more aggressive, such as the removal of coal-fired boilers used to heat homes and commercial buildings, in the middle of last year - citizens and even schools spent the last winter without heating.

The project is ambitious and should still cost the Chinese government good money, especially in the way it has been done, through state impositions, but it is already showing its first positive indicators. Using data from nearly 250 government monitors across the country, which are very similar to those used by the US embassy in Beijing and US consulates across China, it was possible to see big improvements.

Most of the regions analyzed recorded a decline greater than projected and it was precisely in the most populous cities that the fall in pollution was greater. In Beijing the drop was 35%, Shijiazhuang reduced its pollution by 39% and Baoding, which in 2015 was called the most polluted city in China, reduced its concentration of particles by 38%.

When these numbers are converted into life expectancy, if the current pace and level are maintained, the average life expectancy in the 204 analyzed municipalities grows by 2.4 years. The approximately 20 million inhabitants of the Beijing metropolitan region would live 3.3 years longer, those of Shijiazhuang, 5.3 years longer, and those of Baoding, 4.5 years longer.

The speed with which Chinese cities have managed to reduce their concentrations of air pollution is impressive. The war on pollution in China still has a long (and costly) way to go, but it is already showing positive results in terms of people's quality of life.