Air pollution threatens everyone, the United Nations warned on World Environment Day today, with 9 out of 10 people on the planet breathing polluted air. This has caused a growing, global health crisis, which is already responsible for around seven million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Antonio Guterres: There is no time to lose. This is the battle of our lives
The burning of fossil fuels for energy production, transport and industry is a major contributor to air pollution and the main source of carbon emissions that cause global warming. Tackling both of these problems could have significant public health benefits.
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Here are 10 important facts regarding the effects of air pollution on humans:
Air pollution kills 800 people per hour or 13 per minute, three times the annual death toll of tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS combined.
In some cases the same pollutants contribute to both climate change and local air pollution, including black carbon or soot– produced by inefficient combustion in sources such as furnaces and diesel engines– and methane.
The five main sources of air pollution are indoor burning of fossil fuels, the use of wood and other biomass for cooking, home heating and electrification, and industry, including electricity generation such as coal-fired power plants and diesel generators, means of transport, in particular diesel cars, livestock farming, including methane and ammonia-producing livestock, methane-producing rice paddies and the burning of agricultural waste, outdoor burning of waste and the landfilling of organic waste.
Household air pollution causes an estimated 3.8 million premature deaths each year, the vast majority of which occur in the developing world, and almost 60% of these deaths involve women and children.
93% of children around the world live in areas where levels of air pollution exceed WHO’s permissible limits, with 600,000 children under the age of 15 having died from respiratory infections in 2016.
Air pollution is responsible for 26% of deaths from ischaemic heart disease, 24% of deaths from strokes, 43% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 29% from lung cancer. For children (air pollution) is associated with, among other health problems, the birth of underweight babies, asthma, childhood cancers, obesity, poor lung development and autism.
97% of cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet the WHO’s minimum air quality standards, and in high-income countries 29% of cities fall below the permitted limits.
Almost 25% of air pollution from fine particulate matter in urban centres is caused by road traffic, 20% by the burning of domestic fuels and 15% by the operation of industries, including electricity generation.
Keeping global warming levels “well below” 2 degrees Celsius–as governments have pledged in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change to do–could save about a million lives a year by 2050 alone by reducing air pollution.
In the 15 countries that emit the gases most responsible for global warming, the public health cost of air pollution is estimated to be more than 4% of GDP.
