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Agence France-Presse

Nearly 2,000 children die every day from health problems linked to air pollution, which is now the second-largest risk factor for early death worldwide, a report said on Wednesday.
Exposure to air pollution contributed to the deaths of 8.1 million people – around 12 per cent of all fatalities – in 2021, according to the report from the US-based Health Effects Institute.
This means air pollution has overtaken tobacco use and poor diet to become the second leading risk factor for early death, behind only high blood pressure, it said.
Little kids are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, and the institute partnered with the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) for its annual State of Global Air report.
Air pollution contributed to the deaths of more than 700,000 children under the age of five, the report found.
More than 500,000 of those deaths were attributed to cooking indoors using dirty fuels such as coal, wood or dung, mostly in Africa and Asia.

“These are problems we know that we can solve,” said Pallavi Pant, the Health Effects Institute’s head of global health.
Nearly every person in the world breathes unhealthy levels of air pollution every day, the report found.
Over 90 per cent of the deaths were linked to tiny airborne pollutants called PM2.5, which measure 2.5 micrometers or fewer, it said.
Inhaling PM2.5 has been found to increase the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and a range of other health problems.
The report aimed to link the rates of such diseases with air pollution levels.
But despite the “pretty stark” figures, the report could still be underestimating air pollution’s impact, Pant said.


It did not take into account how air pollution could affect brain health, neurodegenerative diseases or what impact using solid fuels for heating could have, she explained.
The report also found that ozone pollution – which is expected to get worse as the world warms due to human-driven climate change – was linked to nearly 500,000 deaths in 2021.
“Increasingly, many parts of the world are seeing very short, intense episodes of air pollution,” during events such as wildfires, dust storms or extreme heat, which can drive up ozone levels, Pant said.
There are “very similar solutions” for both climate change and air pollution – particularly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, she added.
More can also be done about using dirty solid fuels for cooking indoors, Pant said, pointing to how China had made significant improvements in this area.

More than two billion people cook on basic stoves or over open fires indoors, inhaling the harmful smoke.
Partly due to access to cleaner cookstoves, the rate of small children dying from problems linked to air pollution has fallen by more than 50 per cent since 2000, the report said.
In May, the International Energy Agency announced that US$2.2 billion had been pledged by governments and companies to improve access to less deadly cooking methods.
The report released on Wednesday used data covering more than 200 countries and territories from the Global Burden of Disease study conducted by the US-based Institute For Health Metrics and Evaluation.
“Every day, almost 2,000 children under five years die because of health impacts linked to air pollution,” Unicef’s Kitty van der Heijden said in a statement.
“Our inaction is having profound effects on the next generation.”


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Environment

2,000 children die each day from air pollution-linked health problems: report

A coal-fired power plant is silhouetted against the morning sun. A report says that air pollution can be linked to the death of almost 2,000 children daily. Photo: AP

People walk along in front of the India Gate amid heavy smoggy conditions in New Delhi, which regularly ranks among the most polluted major cities on the planet. Photo: AFP

Haze hovers over Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Singapore study links air pollution to 135 million premature deaths

Women cover their faces with masks as haze shrouds Singapore’s central business district in 2016. Photo: Reuters

Haze shrouds the Singapore Flyer observation wheel and Marina Bay Sands in 2019. Photo: Bloomberg

Women in Indonesia’s Aceh province wear masks in 2019 amid thick haze caused by smog-belching forest fires. Photo: AFP

How Asia’s demand for air con threatens its climate change goals

Workers count boxes of air conditioners outside a shop during a heatwave in Ahmedabad, India, on May 30. Estimates suggest India will overtake China as the largest consumer of air conditioning around 2045. Photo: Reuters

Air conditioning units hang from a building in New Delhi on May 30. Temperatures at a weather observatory in India’s capital touched 52.9 degrees Celsius last week, evidence of a worsening heatwave that also sent peak electricity demand in Delhi to an all-time high. Photo: Bloomberg

Clear targets, finance methods needed to make Hong Kong hydrogen push a success: experts

Storage tanks at a hydrogen plant in China’s Xinjiang region. An expert says the mainland is way ahead of Hong Kong in developing hydrogen technology. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

Environment chief Tse Chin-wan with a hydrogen-powered street-washing vehicle. Photo: Sam Tsang

News

World

Asia

Air pollution has overtaken tobacco use and poor diet to become the second leading risk factor for early death, behind only high blood pressure


Air pollution has overtaken tobacco use and poor diet to become the second leading risk factor for early death, behind only high blood pressure, according to a Health Effects Institute report


World Health Organization (WHO)

Climate change

Africa

2,000 children die each day from air pollution-linked health problems: report

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Air pollution has overtaken tobacco use and poor diet to become the second leading risk factor for early death, behind only high blood pressure

Air pollution has overtaken tobacco use and poor diet to become the second leading risk factor for early death, behind only high blood pressure