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The WHO released estimates that in 2012 around 7 million people died – one in eight of total global deaths – as a result of air pollution exposure, more than doubling previous estimates.
Prof Martin Williams, Professor of Air Quality, Environmental Research Group, King’s College London, said:
“This is an important study, and although the majority of attributable deaths occur in South East Asia and the Western Pacific, air pollution impacts on mortality and health are still a significant public health problem in Europe including the UK.”
Prof Jon Ayres, Professor of Environmental and Respiratory Medicine, University of Birmingham, said:
“This review from the WHO needs to be taken seriously. The estimates for the impact of outdoor air pollution are robust and as accurate as can be developed at the moment.
“The impact of indoor air pollution in developing countries, largely relating to the burning of biomass fuels indoors (wood, animal dung, crop residues etc.), is a very real issue. The impact on lower respiratory tract inflections in children, and on COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), and also as a risk factor for tuberculosis infection (but not yet quantified for TB mortality), is also well established and these estimates should be considered as correct.
“Whether one can extend the exposure response functions on cardiovascular end points from outdoor air pollution (largely vehicle emissions), to the effects from indoor air pollution is at best debatable. There are only very limited cardiovascular data for biomass smoke exposure and the assumption that the toxicity of the particles from vehicles (outdoor) is the same as those from biomass (indoor) is unproven. Indeed, there is evidence that different biomass fuels have different toxicity profiles, so one should consider the cardiovascular effects sizes from exposure to biomass (indoor air pollution) in this report with caution.
“This does not take away from the fact that air pollution is a major cause of ill health, both in terms of morbidity and mortality, and that every effort should be made to reduce population exposures as a consequence.”