A fatal risk. Air pollution is the most dangerous environmental risk for health. The air we breathe is causing more and more casualties every year. One in 8 deaths is now associated with air pollution, warns the WHO in its latest estimates.
How is it possible ? Exposure to contaminated indoor or outdoor air promotes the development of potentially fatal pathologies: stroke, ischemic heart disease, cancer, acute respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Low- and middle-income countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific bear the brunt of this stale air. In 2012 they recorded 3.3 million premature deaths linked to indoor pollution and 2.6 million premature deaths linked to outdoor pollution, specifies the WHO. Poor women and children “spend more time at home inhaling the fumes and soot given off by poorly ventilated wood or charcoal stoves,” said Dr Flavia Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General for the health of the family, women and children in a press release.
The urgency of cleaner air
The WHO report aims to raise awareness but also to encourage the public authorities to take concrete actions to clean the ambient air. “The risks from air pollution are now greater than previously thought. (…) Evidence points to the need for concerted action to make the air we breathe cleaner”, says Dr Maria Neira, Director of the WHO Public Health Department.
Solutions to purify the air (less diesel, alternating circulation, etc.) would benefit from being implemented according to the WHO. “Healthier strategies would be (…) more economical in the long run due to savings in health spending, but also to climate benefits,” says Dr Carlos Dora, WHO coordinator for public health and social determinants and environmental health.
