Air Pollution Having Increasing Impact On Human Health, Becoming Second Leading Global Risk Factor For Death

Air pollution accounted for 8.1 million deaths globally in 2021, becoming the second leading risk factor for death, putting it ahead of tobacco and poor diet.

Of the total deaths, noncommunicable diseases including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) account for nearly 90% of the disease burden from air pollution.

The report, released today by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), an independent U.S.-based nonprofit research organization.

Produced for the first time in partnership with UNICEF, the report finds that children under five years old are especially vulnerable, with health effects including premature birth, low birth weight, asthma and lung diseases. In 2021, exposure to air pollution was linked to more than 260,600 deaths of children under five years old, making it the second-leading risk factor for death in South Asia for this age group, after malnutrition. Globally, exposure to air pollution was linked to more than 700,000 deaths; a staggering 500,000 of these child deaths were linked to household air pollution due to cooking with fossil fuels.

A few key points:

1) Air pollution continues to be the leading risk factor for deaths in South Asia.
2) South Asia experiences some of the largest health impacts in children under 5. In 2021, India saw the highest total number of deaths in children under 5 due to air pollution worldwide.
3) The good news is that the number of deaths in children under 5 linked to air pollution are reducing over time.
4) Levels of ozone, a secondary pollutant, and deaths due to ozone are increasing over time.
5) In 2000, exposure to ozone was linked to 93,000 deaths while in 2021, exposure to ozone was linked to 272,000 deaths in India. (NO2), including the impact of NO2 exposures on the development of childhood asthma. Traffic exhaust is a major source of NO2, which means densely populated urban areas often see the highest levels of NO2 exposures and health impacts.
6) The report includes exposure levels and related health effects of nitrogen dioxide.

The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, an environmentalist & a communications professional in the field of climate and energy