WHO 7 million deaths from air pollution

According to WHO, polluted air is the greatest health hazard

03/25/2014

Air pollution as a cause of death? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2012 around seven million people worldwide died of airborne illness. So this is now both in homes and outdoors „the world's largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives“, said the director of the WHO Department of Public Health and the Environment, Maria Neira.

Every eighth death worldwide related to dirty air
Dirty air is becoming a deadly source of danger for more and more people worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2012, every eighth death worldwide (around seven million people in total) is a result of air pollution. However, this should not be regarded as a direct cause, but as a possible trigger for lung diseases, cancer, but also heart disease and strokes. According to the WHO, most of the fatalities caused by polluted air or diseases caused by them had occurred in Asia. Nearly six million deaths were reported in countries including Japan, China, South Korea, India and Indonesia with air pollution - however, it should be borne in mind that the threshold to other risk factors for certain diseases is often difficult to draw.

More deaths from indoor pollution
4.3 million of the total of seven million cases are, according to the WHO, also due to domestic air pollution - especially by cooking with coal or biomass such as wood, manure, agricultural waste or plants on open hearths. According to WHO estimates, 3.7 million people died in connection with dirty outdoor air, for example through car exhaust or coal heating. However, since many people are exposed to both polluted indoor and outdoor air, mortality can in principle be assigned to both origins and not simply added together. As a result of this overlap, WHO has come to the overall estimate of around seven million cases worldwide in 2012.

Women and children in developing countries are particularly often affected
Internal pollution is particularly affecting women and children in developing countries, said WHO Deputy Director-General for the Health of Families, Women and Children, Flavia Bustreo. „Poor women and children are paying a high price for indoor air pollution because they spend more time at home, breathing in smoke and soot from leaking coal and wood stoves. "According to the WHO, the vast majority of indoor air pollution deaths occur Cardiovascular disease (34%) and ischemic heart disease (coronary heart disease) (26%), and in 22% of cases, bad air before death had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD), acute lower respiratory tract infections in children (12%), and lung cancer in 6% of cases.

„Results signal need for action to purify the air“
According to Maria Neira, the current results are "shocking and worrying" as a WHO estimate in 2008 estimated that 1.3 million were killed by outdoor air pollution and 1.9 million by indoor air pollution. However, comparisons with the new figures are difficult, because while the 2008 data were based solely on the urban population, thanks to improved technology, rural areas could now also be included in the calculations. In addition, new medical evidence has shown that the risk of air pollution is much greater than previously thought - especially in the context of heart disease and strokes. „Few risks today have a greater impact on global health than air pollution; this finding signals the need for concerted action to purify the air that we all breathe“, said the director of the WHO Department of Public Health and the Environment. (No)