Ultrafine Particles in the Air: Global Study Attributes Nearly Two Million Premature Deaths a Year | Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

Ultrafine Particles in the Air: Global Study Attributes Nearly Two Million Premature Deaths a Year

First high-resolution global exposure map shows about half of the excess deaths from ultrafine particle pollution are due to cardiovascular disease.

July 14, 2026

Joint press release of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz and the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Ultrafine particles (UFPs) –smaller than 100 nanometres and invisible to the naked eye – contribute substantially to illness and mortality worldwide. That is the finding of an international study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz and The Cyprus Institute, with cardiologists from Mainz University Medical Center among the co-authors. The researchers estimate that around 1.99 million deaths per year worldwide are attributable to exposure to ultrafine particles. That accounts for about five percent of all deaths from non-communicable diseases. Roughly half of these are due to cardiovascular disease. The researchers therefore advocate for binding limit values. The study appears in the journal Cardiovascular Research (Oxford University Press, the journal of the European Society of Cardiology).<br>Unlike fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which is subject to legal limit values in the EU and the US, ultrafine particles remain unregulated. Although they contribute little to particulate mass, their small size gives them a very large surface area relative to their mass, allowing them to penetrate deep into the lungs, bypass respiratory defences, and reach the bloodstream and, via the olfactory pathway through the nose, the brain directly. This makes them fundamentally different from larger particulate matter.

Source: Lelieveld et al., Cardiovascular Research, 2026'...