1 in 5 deaths caused by fossil fuel air pollution worldwide, new study says Posted : 2021-02-16 19:15 Updated : 2021-02-17 19:13 A recent joint study by Harvard and three universities from England has found that about 8.7 million deaths from 2018, or one in every five deaths, was caused by fossil fuel air pollution, more than double the previous estimate. Korea Times file By Ko Dong-hwan With the help of a tech-savvy 3-D model of atmospheric chemistry with a high spatial resolution that analyzed pollution globally and found clues leading to its impact on human health, a recent joint study by universities discovered that one in five deaths from 2018 ― that is, 8.7 million ― was caused by fossil fuel air pollution.