World Health Organization sheds light on 'the toxic air that billions breathe every day' around the world

Air pollution is the “new tobacco,” Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. He warned that the simple act of breathing is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more.

Nine out of 10 people breathe polluted air, or over 90 percent of the world’s population suffers toxic air. The world continues to grow in population size, and technologies continue to increasingly pump out dirty emissions.

While some of the developing nations have developed cleaner mechanisms, other developing nations lag behind this progress. Half the world has no access to clean fuels or technologies, according to WHO.

Meanwhile, research is increasingly revealing the profound impacts on the health of people, especially children. One third of deaths from stroke, lung cancer and heart disease are due to air pollution, according to WHO.

“The world has turned the corner on tobacco. Now it must do the same for the ‘new tobacco’ – the toxic air that billions breathe every day,” Dr. Tedros said. “No one, rich or poor, can escape air pollution. It is a silent public health emergency.”

Air pollution is all around us. Microscopic pollutants in the air can slip past our body’s defenses, penetrating deep into our respiratory and circulatory system. Thus, damaging our lungs, heart and brain, according to WHO.

“Despite this epidemic of needless, preventable deaths and disability, a smog of complacency pervades the planet,” Dr. Tedros said to the Guardian. “This is a defining moment and we must scale up action to urgently respond to this challenge.”

WHO held its First Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in Geneva on Tuesday, Oct. 30. The conference will provide the opportunity for world leaders, scientists, health officials and others to commit to act against this serious health threat, which shortens the lives of around 7 million people each year.

The conference will include a high-level action day at which nations and cities are expected to make new commitments to cut air pollution.

A new WHO report on air pollution and child health was released on the eve of this conference on Oct. 29. The report found that every day around 93 percent of the world’s children under the age of 15 years breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk.

WHO estimates that in 2016, 600,000 children died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air.

“Polluted air is poisoning millions of children and ruining their lives,” Dr. Tedros said in the press release. “This is inexcusable. Every child should be able to breathe clean air so they can grow and fulfill their full potential.”

Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution because they breathe more rapidly than adults, thus they absorb more pollutants. Children also live closer to the ground, where some pollutants reach peak concentrations, at a time when their brains and bodies are still developing.

The burden of disease from polluted air is heaviest in low- and middle-income nations. For example, 100 percent of children under five years old in eastern Mediterranean and African countries are exposed to harmful particulate matter at higher levels than the WHO air quality guidelines. Meanwhile, this percentage drops to about 52 percent in high-income nations.

“Air Pollution is stunting our children’s brains, affecting their health in more ways than we suspected. But there are many straight-forward ways to reduce emissions of dangerous pollutants,” Dr. Maria Neira, director of Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at WHO, said in the press release.

The WHO is working with health professionals around the globe to help their patients and to give them the skills and evidence to advocate for health in policy decisions like moving away from fossil-fuel-powered energy and transport.

“No person, group, city, country or region can solve the problem alone,” Dr. Tedros said to the Guardian. “We need strong commitments and actions from everyone.”

Smoking is on the decline around the globe, and air pollution now causes more deaths annually than tobacco. Many researchers think the known harms of air pollution, such as heart attacks and lung disease, are only “the tip of the iceberg.”

WHO estimates that there are 7 million early deaths each year from air pollution. However, researchers feel that number is an underestimate, as it only includes particle pollution and the five most firmly linked causes of death.

Early estimates using improved models indicate a total figure of 8.9 million early deaths each year from air pollution.

Report a Typo