How air pollution is destroying our health
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Air quality monitoring → Air quality monitoring in low- and middle-income countries needs to be strengthened, especially in areas close to hospitals, schools, and workplaces. Low-cost sensors and other new technologies can expand air quality monitoring and forecasting to areas that are currently underserved. New protocols and standards are needed to guide the effective use and interpretation of data produced by low-cost sensors in citizen science and other applications.
WHO data show that almost all of the global population (99%) breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants, with low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) suffering from the highest exposures.
Ambient (outdoor) air pollution in both cities and rural areas is causing fine particulate matter which results in strokes, heart diseases, lung cancer, and acute and chronic respiratory diseases.
Additionally, around 2.6 billion people are exposed to dangerous levels of household air pollution from using polluting open fires or simple stoves for cooking fuelled by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste) and coal.
First Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health
To rally the world towards major commitments to fight this problem, WHO and partners convened the first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in Geneva on 29 October – 1 November 2018. The conference raised awareness of this growing public health challenge and shared information and tools on the health risks of air pollution and its interventions.
This conference showcased some of WHO’s work on air pollution, including the findings of its Global Platform on Air Quality and Health. This platform, whose diverse membership includes researchers, civil society, UN agencies and other partner institutions, reviewed the data on air quality and health. For example, the platform worked on techniques to more accurately attribute air pollution coming from different sources of pollution. Ongoing work includes improving estimates of air quality by combining the data from various air quality monitoring networks, atmospheric modelling and satellite remote sensing.
Health impacts of air pollution
There are two main types of air pollution: ambient air pollution (outdoor pollution) and household air pollution (indoor air pollution). Ambient air pollution is a major environmental health problem affecting everyone in low-, middle-, and high-income countries as its source – combustion of fossil fuel – is ubiquitous. Household air pollution is mainly caused by the use of solid fuels (such as wood, crop wastes, charcoal, coal and dung) and kerosene in open fires and inefficient stoves. Most of these people are poor and live in low- and middle-income countries.
Exposure to smoke from cooking fires causes 3.2 million premature deaths each year, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, where polluting fuels and technologies are used every day, particularly at home for cooking, heating and lighting. Women and children, who tend to spend more time indoors, are affected the most. LMIC also suffer the greatest from exposure ambient air pollution with 3.68 million premature deaths each year, which is almost 8 times the mortality rates in high income countries (0.47 million).
The main pollutants are:
- particulate matter, a mix of solid and liquid droplets, with larger particles (PM10) arising from pollen, sea spray and wind-blown dust from erosion, agricultural spaces, roadways and mining operations, while finer particles (PM2.5) can be derived from primary sources (for example combustion of fuels in power generation facilities, industries or vehicles) and secondary sources (for example chemical reactions between gases)
- nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a gas from combustion of fuels in processes such as those used for furnaces, gas stoves, transportation, industry and power generation;
- sulfur dioxide, another gas mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels for domestic heating, industries and power generation; and
- ozone at ground level, caused by a chemical reaction of gases, such as NO2, in the presence of sunlight. The pollutant that is most commonly monitored by regulatory frameworks and for which a lot of evidence of adverse health impact is available is particulate matter followed by nitrogen dioxide.
