India is the world’s second most polluted country. Air pollution shortens average Indian life expectancy by 5 years,
relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline
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fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) of 5 μg/m3 was met. Some areas of India fare much worse than average, with air pollution shortening lives by almost 10
years in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the most polluted city in the world.
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Virtually all (99.9 percent) of Southeast Asia’s 656.1 million people live in areas where particulate pollution exceeds the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m³. Despite the lockdowns of the pandemic,
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pollution continued to rise in much of Southeast Asia in 2020. This pollution cuts short the life expectancy of the average Southeast Asian person by 1.5 years, relative to what it would be if the WHO guideline was met. That’s a total of 959.8 million person-years lost to pollution in the eleven countries that make up this region. Some countries in the region experience greater impacts from pollution.
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WHO Air Quality Guidelines set goals to protect millions of lives from air pollution
Waste management options such as recycling, composting, incineration and landfill impact health and well-being in profound ways, particularly for people who work directly with waste or live and work around waste sites.
Air pollution is a familiar environmental health hazard. We know what we’re looking at when brown haze settles over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway, or a plume rises from a smokestac
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k. Some air pollution is not seen, but its pungent smell alerts you.
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PATS and ERS
Paediatric Webinar Series
Air pollution and the lung in children:
the evidence for exposure and prevention measures
Indoor air pollution is caused by burning solid fuel sources – such as firewood, crop waste, and dung – for cooking and heating.
Burning such fuels, particularly in poor households, results i
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n air pollution that leads to respiratory diseases, which can result in premature death. The WHO calls indoor air pollution "the world's largest single environmental health risk."
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Why does WHO consider air pollution a public health emergency? If you live in highly polluted areas does COVID-19 affect you differently? WHO’s Dr Maria Neira explains in Science in 5.
For decades, pollution and its harmful effects on people’s health, the environment, and the planet have been neglected both by Governments and the international development agenda. Yet, pollution
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is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths.
The Lancet Commission on pollution and health addresses the full health and economic costs of air, water, and soil pollution. Through analyses of existing and emerging data, the Commission reveals pollution’s severe and underreported contribution to the Global Burden of Disease. It uncovers the economic costs of pollution to low-income and middle-income countries. The Commission will inform key decision makers around the world about the burden that pollution places on health and economic development, and about available cost-effective pollution control solutions and strategies.
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Pakistan is the world’s fourth most polluted country. Air pollution shortens the average Pakistani’s life expectancy by 3.8 years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (
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WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m3 was met.1 Some areas of Pakistan fare much worse than average, with air pollution shortening lives by almost 7 years in the country’s most polluted regions, like Lahore and Peshawar.
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Pollution (dirty air) is a big trigger for asthma as it makes it difficult to breathe and affects the health of humans, animals, and plants. Avoiding poll
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ution helps prevent asthma symptoms!
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Bangladesh is the world’s most polluted country. Air pollution shortens the average Bangladeshi’s life expectancy by 6.9 years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (WHO
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) guideline of 5 μg/m³ was met. Some areas of Bangladesh fare much worse than average, with air pollution shortening lives by nearly 9 years in Dhaka, the country’s most polluted city.
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Despite some improvements, current levels of air pollution still pose a considerable risk to the environment and to human health in the WHO European Region. One issue of concern is that monitoring o
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f particulate matter is very limited in the countries of eastern Europe, the Caucasus and central Asia. This paper summarizes the evidence about the health effects of air pollution from particulate matter and presents the policy implications, the aim being to stimulate policy-makers to develop more effective strategies to reduce air pollution and its health effects in those countries.
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Explore historical emissions of air pollutants from fuel use globally.
Air pollution’s impact on life expectancy in Nigeria is greater than that of HIV/AIDS and almost on par with malaria and unsafe water and sanitation, shortening the average Nigerian’s life expec
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tancy by 1.8 years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m3 was met.1 Some areas of Nigeria fare much worse than average, with air pollution shortening lives by almost 4 years on average in parts of Taraba state in Northeastern Nigeria.
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Air pollution is the top environmental threat to health in Europe. It leads to hundreds of thousands premature deaths per year and billions of Euros in health costs.
In Central and West Africa, regions together comprising 27 countries and 605 million people, the average person is exposed to particulate pollution levels that are more than 4 times the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m³1. If
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these particulate pollution levels persist, average life expectancy in the regions would be 1.6 years lower, and a total of 971 million person-years would be lost, relative to if air quality met the WHO guideline. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, are the top three most polluted countries in the region.
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Nepal is the world’s third most polluted country. Air pollution shortens average Nepalese life expectancy by 4.1 years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelin
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e of 5 μg/m3 was met.1 The highest concentrations of air pollution are observed in Nepal’s southwestern districts, which share their borders with the highly-polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain of India. Here, residents stand to lose nearly 7 years of life expectancy.
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A collection of 8 infographics on Household Air Pollution.
Accessed on 06.03.2022
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