(Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen's emissions scandal now has anestimated death toll.

The excess emissions that the company concealed will beresponsible for about 59 early deaths in the U.S. alone, accordingto a sweeping new study. The implications for Europe arefar worse.

The study, by researchers at MIT and Harvard, is the firstpeer-reviewed estimate of the health impacts of Volkswagen'sfaulty software code, designed to conceal harmful pollutants.If the cars are all recalled by the end of next year, another 130deaths may be avoided, according to the study publishedThursday in the journal Environmental ResearchLetters.

"It's far from clear how many people will actually turn in theircars," said Steven Barrett, a professor at MIT and lead authorof the study. "That's a key challenge."

Volkswagen's deception allowed some 482,000 U.S. dieselcars to pass emissions tests even as they polluted as much as 40times the legal limit. The study calculated excess nitrogen oxideemissions released by the dirty fleet and then modeled theeffects across the U.S. using data about population density,traffic, health risks, and weather patterns. Where VW'sPollution Is Worst

Volkswagen is working on a fix that will satisfy U.S.regulators, spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan wrote in an email. "Wehave no details on the timing or the details of what the remedieswill be," she said. The company declined to comment onthe estimates of deaths caused by its cheating device.

For the half million cars affected in the U.S., about 60people will die prematurely, on average more than 10 years beforethey otherwise would have, according to the study. Worldwide, thenumber of affected vehicles is far greater—11 million—with thegreatest concentration in Europe. High population densitiesthere could make the health consequences even worse.

By comparison, General Motors's infamous ignition-switchdefect, also concealed from the public, has been linked to thedeaths of at least 124 people. This week's study showsthe Volkswagen scandal, already one of the biggest and costliest inautomotive history, may also become one of the deadliest.

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