Nine out of 10 people globally are breathing poor quality air, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday, calling for dramatic action against pollution that is blamed for more than six million deaths a year.
New data in a report from the UN’s global health body “is enough to make all of us extremely concerned,” Maria Neira, the head of the WHO’s department of public health and environment, told reporters.
The problem is most acute in cities, but air in rural areas is worse than many think, WHO experts said.
Poorer countries have much dirtier air than the developed world, according to the report, but pollution “affects practically all countries in the world and all parts of society”, Neira said in a statement.
The WHO has estimated that more than six million deaths per year are linked to exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution.
Data is more solid for outdoor pollution, which is blamed for more than three million fatalities annually.
But indoor pollution can be equally as harmful, especially in poorer developing world homes where cooking often involves burning charcoal.
Nearly 90-percent of air pollution-related deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, the WHO said.
Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region — including China, Malaysia and Vietnam — are the hardest hit, the data showed.
