Air pollution is shortening the lives of millions of Pakistanis, reducing average life expectancy by almost four years and up to six years in smog-choked cities like Lahore, according to a new national assessment.

The study, titled Unveiling Pakistan’s Air Pollution and published by the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI) this week, includes Pakistan’s first multi-sector, city-level emissions mapping, ending years of speculation over what drives the country’s chronic smog.

Researchers identified transport, industry, brick kilns, power generation and crop burning as Pakistan’s largest contributors of PM2.5, which is hazardous fine particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers wide that penetrates deep into the lungs and bloodstream, increasing the risk of heart disease, lung cancer and early death. The dominant sources varied by city, giving a data-based picture of pollution patterns for the first time.

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