In a recent study, it’s been established that air pollution kills more people than smoking does.
Researchers found that air pollution has caused 8.8 million deaths globally in a year, which is almost double than the previously estimated number of 4.5 mn. For a contrast, World Health Organization put tobacco smoking death estimates at 7.2 mn in 2015.
This time, researchers, from Max Planck Institute in Germany, used new data and computer simulations to estimate the health impact of air pollution from sources such as traffic, industry, electricity generation and farming.
Worldwide, they found that air pollution is responsible for 120 extra deaths per year per 100,000 of the population.
Of all the countries, taken into consideration, Germany had one of the highest death rates in Europe at 154 per 100,000 of the population.
Air pollution significantly increases the risk of premature death from heart and circulatory diseases.
Governments and international agencies must take urgent action to reduce air pollution. They can re-evaluate rules governing around air quality and lower the EU’s current air pollution limits.
After all, smoking is avoidable, but air pollution is not.
Image Credits – CNN.com
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather