According to new interactive maps released by the World Health Organization, 92 percent of the world’s population resides in areas where air quality is below the international organization’s standards.
“The new WHO model shows countries where the air pollution danger spots are, and provides a baseline for monitoring progress in combating it,” Flavia Bustreo, assistant director general at the organization, said in a news release.
The maps are founded on rural and urban information culled from satellite measurements, air transportation models, and ground station monitors at greater than 3000 locations. The WHO said the maps are the most comprehensive air pollution-related health data, by country, “ever reported by WHO.”
“Air pollution continues to take a toll on the health of the most vulnerable populations – women, children and the older adults,” Bustreo said. “For people to be healthy, they must breathe clean air from their first breath to their last.”
A Deadly Problem
According to WHO data, about 3 million fatalities a year are associated with chronic exposure to outdoor air contaminants. Indoor air pollution can be just as lethal. In 2012, approximately 6.5 million deaths were linked to indoor and outdoor air pollution together.
Almost 90 percent of air-pollution-related fatalities take place in low- and middle-income countries and 94% of deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (CPOD) and lung cancer. Air pollution also boosts the chances for acute respiratory infections.
To learn more about the global threat posed by air pollution, WHO researchers compared national air pollution exposures to population and air pollution levels at a resolution of about 10 kilometers x 10 kilometers (6.2 miles x 6.2 miles).
“This new model is a big step forward towards even more confident estimates of the huge global burden of more than 6 million deaths – 1 in 9 of total global deaths – from exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution,” said Maria Neira, WHO director of the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health. “More and more cities are monitoring air pollution now, satellite data is more comprehensive, and we are getting better at refining the related health estimates.”
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