Air Pollution Kills 7 Million People a Year, WHO Reports
- About 90% of world’s population exposed to dangerous pollution
- Household pollution caused 3.8 million deaths in 2016
This article is for subscribers only.
Toxic levels of pollution leads annually to the early death of an estimated 7 million people, according to a new World Health Organization report.
Nine of 10 people around the world are exposed to dangerously high levels of pollutants that can lead to cancer and cardiovascular diseases, according to the study, which drew off the most-recent 2016 data. Air pollution levels were the highest in the eastern Mediterranean and southeast Asia, where in some areas airborne toxins were five times WHO limits and disproportionately affected the poor and most vulnerable.