The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Wednesday, released a new report indicating that nearly one million people die from air pollution in Africa every year.
According to the WHO survey air pollution is a major environmental risk to health and it is responsible for more than 7 million deaths. It also disclosed that nine in every ten people worldwide breathe polluted air.
These deaths are as a result of exposure to fine particles in polluted air that penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections, including pneumonia.
Pollution contributes to death when fine particles of soot, dust and other materials found in polluted air enters the lungs and cardiovascular system. In most cases, air pollution is a contributory factor and not the primary cause of death, WHO says.
Air pollution is increasingly recognised as a key risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the biggest cause of death worldwide causing an estimated one-quarter 24per cent of all adult deaths from heart disease.
Twenty-five per cent of deaths are due to heart disease and stroke, 43 per cent of deaths due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29 per cent of deaths due to lung cancer are linked to breathing poor quality air.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO said air pollution threatens us all, but the poorest and most marginalized people bear the brunt of the burden.
“It is unacceptable that over 3 billion people – most of them women and children are still breathing deadly smoke every day from using polluting stoves and fuels in their homes. If we don’t take urgent action on air pollution, we will never come close to achieving sustainable development,” said Ghebreyesus.
The report further reveals that ambient air pollution alone caused some 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in the same period
“More than 90% of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, followed by low- and middle- income countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region, Europe and the Americas,” says the report.
Maria Neira, director of the department of Public Health, Social and Environmental Determinants of Health, at WHO said many of the world’s megacities exceed WHO’s guideline levels for air quality by more than 5 times, representing a major risk to people’s health.
“We are seeing an acceleration of political interest in this global public health challenge. The increase in cities recording air pollution data reflects a commitment to air quality assessment and monitoring. Most of this increase has occurred in high-income countries, but we hope to see a similar scale-up of monitoring efforts worldwide,” said Neira.
WHO states that air pollution does not recognize borders. Improving air quality demands sustained and coordinated government action at all levels. Countries need to work together on solutions for sustainable transport, more efficient and renewable energy production and use and waste management.
WHO works with many sectors including transport and energy, urban planning and rural development to support countries to tackle this problem.
