New Delhi: In 2021, the deaths of 8.1 million people worldwide were linked to air pollution.
This made air pollution the second leading risk factor (something that increases the possibility) of deaths that year, just after high blood pressure, according to the State of Global Air 2024 released on June 19. Per the report, jointly published by two US-based health institutes and in partnership with UNICEF, children below five years of age are particularly vulnerable, as are people in African and South Asian countries.
At 1,69,400, India witnessed the highest number of deaths linked to air pollution among children under five years of age in 2021. The report also lists India as among the countries that have experienced increases of more than 10 percent in ambient ozone exposures over the last decade.
Second largest risk factor of deaths in 2021
Air pollution is almost as dangerous as cigarette smoking: the loss of life expectancy (the number of years a person is expected to live) is similar for both. This is primarily due to the suite of cardiovascular and respiratory problems that arise due to exposure to air pollutants such as ozone, and fine particulate matter – or PM 2.5, tiny inhalable particles that are less than 2.5 mm in diameter and get lodged in our lungs – which is produced when fossil fuels are burnt. A recent Lancet study noted that in 2019, around 6.67 million deaths across the world could be attributed to air pollution. While an estimated 0.37 million deaths that year could be attributed to ozone, and around 2.31 million deaths to household air pollution (generated by firewood used for cooking, as well as inefficient stoves), ambient PM 2.5 could be attributed to 4.14 million deaths worldwide.
The US’s Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease project, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), analysed data on exposure to common air pollutants, data on air quality, estimates of health risks and demography. Their findings – based on data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD 2021) of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation – are listed in the report released on June 19, titled State of Global Air 2024. This year’s report is the fifth such report of its kind.
The State of Global Air 2024 estimates that air pollution from PM 2.5 and ozone contributed to 8.1 million deaths. This amounts to about 12% of the total global deaths in 2021.
“In fact, PM 2.5 (both ambient and household together) is the largest contributor to the air pollution disease burden worldwide, accounting for 7.8 million deaths, or more than 90% of the total air pollution disease burden,” the report said.
Disease burden or the burden of disease refers to the intensity or severity of the disease and its possible impact on daily life.
Overall, 2021 saw more deaths linked to air pollution than were estimated for any previous year. This shows that “the disease burden of air pollution has continued to rise”, the report pointed out. People in low and middle-income countries are exposed to 1.3 – 4 times higher levels of ambient PM 2.5, per the report. Africa and south Asia are also particularly vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution: countries in south Asia and east, west, central, and southern Africa experience the largest burden of disease linked to air pollution, per the report. India (with 2.1 million deaths) and China (with 2.3 million deaths) together accounted for 54% of the total global disease burden.
Exposure to ozone has been increasing too, and the report lists India – along with Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil – as among the countries that have experienced increases of more than 10% in ambient ozone exposures in the last decade.
“In 2021, nearly 50% of all ozone-related COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] deaths were in India (237,000 deaths) followed by China (125,600 deaths) and Bangladesh (15,000 deaths),” the report noted.
Impacts on children
The data for 2021 showed that air pollution is the second global risk factor for deaths of children below five years of age, right after malnutrition.
A total of 7,09,000 children under five years of age died due to air pollution in 2021. That’s almost three times higher than the figure in 2020, as per the World Health Organisation: 2,37,00 deaths, of children under five. In 2021, India witnessed 1,69,400 deaths of children in this age group linked to air pollution: the highest among all countries.
Almost three-fourths of the ~7 lakh deaths that occurred globally in 2021 were due to household air pollution, while PM 2.5 caused the rest of the deaths among children of this age. The disease burden in children of this age group is highest in countries in Asia and Africa, per the report. In several African and Asian countries – including Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India – more than 40% of all deaths due to lower respiratory tract infections in children under five are attributed to air pollution. In south Asia, as well as east, west, central and southern Africa, air pollution accounted for nearly 30% of all deaths in the first month after birth.
But there’s some good news too.
According to the report, the disease burden linked to air pollution in children below five years of age has decreased by 35 percent since 2010. This is primarily due to a decrease in household air pollution, which is known to cause illnesses such as stroke, ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, per the WHO.
Per the report, the disease burden for household air pollution has also decreased worldwide, since the year 2000 – mostly, due to reduced exposure to sources of air pollution in south Asian countries and China. There has been a 36 percent drop in deaths due to household air pollution.
Moreover, across the globe, ambient PM 2.5 levels are either reducing or stabilising in many regions. Deaths caused by lower respiratory infections are also decreasing across most regions, the report noted.
While the report may look like it’s just about numbers, these numbers matter because they give us a “scale of the problem”, the State of Global Air 2024 report noted.
“By describing the magnitude of the air pollution problem and its true toll – and providing examples of actions being taken to improve air quality around the globe – we intend this report to inspire and inform efforts to reclaim and rebuild the healthy environment,” the report concluded.
“This new report offers a stark reminder of the significant impacts air pollution has on human health, with far too much of the burden borne by young children, older populations, and low- and middle-income countries,” said Dr. Pallavi Pant, HEI’s Head of Global Health who oversaw the report release, in a press release. “This points sharply at an opportunity for cities and countries to consider air quality and air pollution as high-risk factors when developing health policies and other noncommunicable disease prevention and control programs.”
