Air Pollution has emerged as the biggest reason for widespread deaths worldwide, says a new report by the World Health Organisation, (WHO) released in Geneva. The appalling figures once again raised concerns over the problem of air pollution in developing countries like China and India.
The report says one out of every eight deaths in world is tied to dirty air. Heart disease and heart strokes brought on by air pollution have led to about 80% of deaths, a total of 3.7 million deaths worldwide.
Further, the most air pollution-related deaths happened in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific (approximately six million). The report found that those who are most vulnerable live in a wide arc of Asia stretching from Japan and China in the northeast to India in the south.
Meanwhile, NBC News reports, the effects of indoor air pollution, caused by coal, wood, and open-air fires, killed an estimated 4.3 million people.
A 2008 WHO report estimated outdoor pollution led to 1.3 million deaths, while about 1.9 million people were killed by indoor pollution.
The World Health Organization report, released in Geneva, coincided on Tuesday with the publication of a World Bank study in Beijing, which talks about China’s drive to urbanize the country and set up drones to fight the perennial problem of air pollution.
According to heath agencies, in India, 700 million people rely on biomass fuels like agricultural waste for indoor cooking, which leads to deaths of mostly poor women.
“The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood. The shocking jump in the air pollution figures in the last few years signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe”, says Mahesh Palawat, of Skymet Meteorological Division.
Photo by wikipedia.
