Air pollution is the biggest threat to human health – The shocking facts

Atmospheric pollution has become the number one risk to people’s health, “overtaking” smoking and alcohol.

However, the amount of funds devoted to addressing the problem of air pollution is far less than that intended to address infectious diseases, as reported in the research of the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago (EPIC).

Its annual Air Quality Lifetime Index (AQLI) report shows that fine particulate matter pollution—caused by industrial emissions, vehicle emissions, wildfires and other factors—remains the “ most serious external threat to public health”.

If the global community were to consistently reduce these pollutants to meet the limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO), then the average person would add 2.3 years to their life expectancy, according to data compiled by EPIC in 2021.

Particulate matter is linked to lung disease, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

In comparison, the use of tobacco products reduces global life expectancy by 2.2 years while childhood and maternal malnutrition account for a reduction of 1.6 years.

Asia and Africa are the ones facing the biggest problem, having the worst infrastructure to provide citizens with timely and accurate information. In addition, they receive a very small – already limited – share of the global “charity pie”.

Boosting… 300,000 across Africa to tackle pollution

For example, the entire African continent receives less than $300,000 to address air pollution.

“There is a big difference between where the worst air pollution is and where, collectively and globally, we are using resources to fix the problem,” Christa Hasenkopf, director of air quality programs at EPIC, told AFP.

While there is an international funding partnership called the Global Fund that disburses $4 billion a year for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, there is no equivalent for air pollution.

“However, air pollution takes more years off the average person’s life in DRC and Cameroon than HIV/AIDS, malaria and other health threats,” the report says.

At the top of the pollution Bangladesh

Globally, South Asia is the most affected region. Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are in order the first four most polluted countries. According to data modeling by EPIC, residents of Bangladesh – where the average exposure level to fine particulate matter is estimated at 74 µg/m3 – could see their life expectancy increase by 6.8 years if the pollution limit was reduced to 5 µg/m3, the level recommended by the WHO.

India’s capital, New Delhi, is considered “the most polluted megacity in the world”, with an average annual rate of 126.5 µg/m3.

On the contrary, China “has recorded remarkable progress in the fight against air pollution” that started in 2014, Hazenkopf emphasizes to AFP.

Thus, average air pollution in the country decreased by 42.3% between 2013 and 2021, but remains six times higher than the limit recommended by the WHO. If this progress continues over time, the Chinese population will gain an average of 2.2 years of life expectancy, EPIC estimates.

Big problem from fires

In the United States, the federal Clean Air Act program has helped reduce air pollution by 64.9% since 1970, allowing the average American life expectancy to increase by 1.4 years.

But the growing threat posed by wildfires—linked to warmer temperatures and more severe droughts due to climate change—is causing air pollution to rise from the western US to Latin America and Southeast Asia.

For example, in 2021, California’s historically unprecedented wildfire season resulted in air pollution in Pluma County, California at five times the WHO-recommended limit.

The large fires that ravaged Canada in the summer of 2023 caused pollution to peak in Quebec and Ontario, as well as several areas of the eastern United States.

In Europe, the improvement in air quality in recent decades has followed the momentum seen in the United States, but deep disparities remain between the eastern and western parts of the continent.

The article Air pollution is the biggest threat to human health – The shocking facts was published in Fourals.com.