World Health Organisation report on Air pollution
World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a
report on air pollution, Titled as " Ambient air pollution: A global
assessment of exposure and burden of disease".
According to a study conducted by WHO, air
pollution could have killed at least 600,000 Indians in 2012.
What else the study notes?
- About a fifth of the 3 million who
died worldwide were exposed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that may
have aggravated or been directly responsible for cardiovascular diseases
and lung cancer.
- India comes just behind China –
which witnessed an estimated 800,000 deaths. It is second among all
countries in the absolute number of deaths caused due to exposure to air
pollution.
- About 2,49,388 Indians died of
Ischemic heart disease;1,95,001 of stroke; 1,10,500 of Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and 26,334 of lung cancer.
- Industries, households, cars and
trucks emit complex air pollutants, including invisible PM2.5
particulates.
Impact of PM2.5:
- The impact of fine particulate
matter (PM2.5) highlighted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) study is
felt through a broad spectrum of acute and chronic illnesses that cause
premature death. These include lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD) and cardiovascular diseases.
- Worldwide, PM2.5 is estimated to
cause about 16% of lung cancer deaths, 11% of COPD deaths, and more than
20% of ischaemic heart disease and stroke.
- More than 80% of people living in
urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels
that exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) limits. The study gave the
WHO air quality guidelines for PM2.5 as 10 micrograms per cubic metre
annual average, and 25 micrograms per cubic metre 24-hour average.
- While all regions of the world are
affected, populations in low-income cities are the most impacted. Overall,
98% of cities in low- and middle income countries with more than 100,000
inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines. However, in
high-income countries, that percentage decreases to 56%.
- Of all of pollutants, fine particulate matter has the greatest impact on health. A lot of the fine particulate matter comes from fuel combustion, both from mobile sources such as vehicles and from stationary sources such as power plants, industry, households or biomass burning.
