A UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-backed report has warned that air pollution is increasingly impacting human health and is now the second leading global risk factor, after high blood pressure, for premature death. The State of Global Air (SoGA) report, published in partnership with UNICEF, stated the global deadly and growing impact of air pollution. The fifth edition of the report, released by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), revealed that air pollution caused 8.
1 million deaths worldwide in 2021, and many millions are dealing with debilitating chronic diseases, leaving healthcare systems, economies, and societies. Further, it found that children under five are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, leaving over 700,000 in this age group dead in 2021. The SoGA report found that pollutants like outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.
5) – which comes from burning fossil fuels and biomass in sectors like transportation, residential homes, wildfires and others – caused more than 90 per cent of global air pollution deaths. The pollutants were the “most consistent and accurate predictor of poor health outcomes around the world.” Other pollutants like household air pollution, ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) – which can be found in traffic exhaust – also contribute to the global deterioration of human health.
HEI President Elena Craft said she hopes the information in the report will inspire change. PREMIUM TIMES delivers fact-based journalism for Nigerians, by.
