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One in six people die from pollution in the world, according to a study

2022-05-18T11:15:20.139Z


The study found that pollution kills 9 million people each year, nearly three-quarters of them due to harmful air.


Air pollution reaches 'dangerous' levels in New Delhi 0:42

(CNN) --

Pollution caused one in six deaths worldwide in 2019, a new study has revealed -- more than annual figures from war, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, drugs or alcohol. .

The study, published Tuesday by The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, found that pollution kills 9 million people each year, nearly three-quarters of them due to harmful air.

According to the study, deaths from air pollution and toxic chemical pollution have increased 66% in the last two decades due to uncontrolled urbanization, population growth and reliance on fossil fuels.

"The health impact of pollution remains enormous, with low- and middle-income countries bearing the brunt of this burden," said Richard Fuller, lead author of the study.

"Despite its enormous health, social and economic repercussions, pollution prevention is largely overlooked on the international development agenda."

A man stands on a balcony on a polluted day in Beijing on November 5, 2021.

After air pollution, water contamination was the next deadliest threat, causing 1.36 million premature deaths in 2019. Lead contamination was next, followed by "toxic occupational hazards."

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The study builds on a 2015 report by the same commission, based on data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, an international collaboration based at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

In the intervening four years, the deadly impact of pollution in the world has not improved, becoming the biggest environmental risk factor for disease and premature death, according to the study.

He added that the "absence of an adequate national or international chemical policy" has aggravated the deaths.

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According to the study, more than 90% of deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries that failed to make pollution a priority, such as India and Nigeria.

High-income countries, for their part, had controlled the "worst forms of pollution," according to the study.

"It is clear that pollution is a global threat and that its causes, its spread and its effects on health transcend local borders and require a global response," said Rachael Kupka, co-author and executive director of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. .

"Global action is needed on the major pollutants out there today."

Air pollution in Kolkata on December 4, 2021.

India tops the list

India recorded the highest number of air pollution-related deaths in 2019, with more than 1.6 million people killed in a nation of 1.3 billion people, according to the study.

Pollution levels across most of India are well above World Health Organization guidelines, forcing millions of people to breathe toxic air every day, research indicates.

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Last year, six of the ten most polluted cities in the world were in India, according to the IQAir monitoring network.

Harmful air could be cutting the life expectancies of hundreds of millions of Indians by as much as nine years, according to a recent study by the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute.

In 2019, the Indian government announced a national clean air campaign, with the goal of reducing particulate pollution by up to 30% by 2024. Specific plans were created for each city;

in the capital, Delhi, those plans included measures to reduce traffic, road burns and dust, and to encourage the use of cleaner fuels.

Thick toxic foam floats on the Yamuna River in New Delhi, India, on January 24, 2022.

But in recent years, India's pollution problem has worsened, in part due to the country's reliance on fossil fuels, and coal in particular.

At last year's COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, India was part of a group of countries that pushed for a last-minute amendment to phase in coal instead of "eliminating" it.

In Africa, meanwhile, deaths from traditional pollution, such as unsafe water or poor sanitation practices, fell, the study found, largely due to improvements in sanitation, water quality and antibiotics.

However, the number of deaths from air pollution is beginning to rise, as economic growth has led to increased urbanization in many African countries.

The Lancet committee called for action with eight recommendations, including increasing government funding for pollution control, improving pollution data collection and creating an independent global body to monitor pollution, similar to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

IndiaThe Lancet

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-05-18

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