The United States, where yearly deaths from air pollution fell from 119,000 to 79,000 between 1990 and 2013, and the European Union, where they fell from 350,000 to 218,000 over the same period, stand as models for China, Greenbaum said. The United States continues to push for lower emissions from automobile traffic and has imposed stronger rules on industry, such as cement plants and those that generate electricity from coal.