More than 95 percent of the world’s population lives with unsafe levels of air particle pollution as measured by the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines, including a large swath of populations stretching from Africa to the Middle East and South Asia, according to a recently released report.
The effect is deadly: Air pollution accounts for roughly one out of nine deaths worldwide, or 11.2 percent, according to the State of Global Air/2018, a health project organized by the Health Effects Institute, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the University of British Columbia.
“Fine particle air pollution is the largest environmental risk factor worldwide, responsible for a substantially larger number of attributable deaths than other more well-known behavioral risk factors such as alcohol use, physical inactivity, or high sodium intake,” say the authors of the report.
The report’s publication comes on the eve of the annual global Earth Day observance – this year scheduled for April 22. Three separate metrics contribute to overall air pollution tallies: particles in the outdoor air, the ozone levels and household air pollution generated from activities like cooking and heating.
Pollution stemming from particles in the air affects populations most severely in North Africa, West Africa and the Middle East, where mineral dust circulates through the air. Some countries in these regions also burn farmland and forests and heat homes with fossil fuels, further contributing to pollution levels.
Much of Africa is also exposed to household pollution, while ozone levels are most extreme in countries in the Middle East and South Asia. The United States falls far below global averages for air particle and household pollution but surpasses the global average for ozone levels, though that gap has narrowed.
Measures of air particle and ozone pollution are population-adjusted, with greater weight given to pollutants concentrated in densely populated areas.
The average population-adjusted level of household air pollution has declined globally between 1990 and 2016, while the average levels of air particle and ozone pollution increased during that period.
Research has tied each variant of air pollution to detrimental health effects. Pollution from outdoor air particles ranks sixth in risk factors tied to worldwide deaths in 2016, and household pollution ranks eighth. More commonly discussed health risks like high blood pressure and smoking top the list, while ozone pollution ranks 33rd.
The three forms of air pollution combined contributed to 6.1 million deaths in 2016.
And while deaths from air particle pollution have fallen in Europe since 1990, they have increased in countries like China and India, both of which have seen population booms. Deaths from household air pollution decreased in both countries over the same period.
Air pollution can also induce illness and disability that reduces the quality of life. People living in highly polluted areas are hospitalized for and die early from strokes, heart and lung disease and lung cancer more frequently than those living with cleaner air, according to research cited by the report.
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Factors contributing to air pollution vary by country. In India, air particle pollution stems substantially from the practice of burning fuel inside homes. Fuel burning also adds to the level of air particulates in China, but industrial coal and transportation have a greater effect there.
Efforts to address air pollution in countries most deeply burdened should directly target such sources, the report argues.
“Actions to reduce air pollution should address not only the larger-scale burning of coal by power plants and industries, but also the use of coal or different forms of biomass for heating and cooking in millions of small households around the world,” the report states.
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Air Pollution Contributes to Global Deaths originally appeared on usnews.com
