Air pollution prematurely kills seven million people every year, including over a hundred thousand Americans. It is linked to strokes, heart attacks, cancers, dementia, and premature birth. In Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution, Beth Gardiner travels the world from the halls of power in Washington, D.C. to the U.K., Poland, and India, exposing the political decisions and economic forces that have kept us breathing dirty air. In the United States, air is far cleaner than it once was. But advances have failed to keep up with science, which indicates that even lower pollution levels are causing damage, and deregulation stands to put decades of progress at risk. In other parts of the world where pollution is far worse, nations are scrambling to replicate the achievements of the former standard bearer, the US Environmental Protection Agency. While the future is far from certain, Choked shows that we hold the power to build a cleaner, healthier future: one in which breathing is safe for all. Beth Gardiner is a London-based journalist whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, National Geographic, Time, and Smithsonian, and she has provided commentary on MSNBC, the BBC and Britain's Sky News.
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