ISTOCK, PLHERRERANinety-five percent of the world’s population lives in regions with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to a report published today (April 17) by Boston-based nonprofit organization, the Health Effects Institute (HEI). Data from The State of Global Air 2018 report indicate the highest risk for people living in North and West Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, with the gap between more- and less-wealthy countries increasing.
This is the second year that the HEI has published such a report, also available as interactive data pages on a website maintained by the HEI and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Seattle. Like last year’s publication, the current overview provides an assessment of outdoor air pollution from analyses of the ozone and quantities of ambient particulate matter—tiny particles such as dust and soot that are suspended in the air and can be hazardous if inhaled.
According to the report, “fine particle air pollution is the largest environmental risk factor worldwide, responsible for a substantially larger number of attributable deaths than other more well-known behavioral risk factors such as alcohol use, physical inactivity, or high sodium intake.”
This ...
