In the News
November 22, 2018
Air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels by vehicles and industry reduces lives by two years on average, according to research from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.
In India and China – and other worst effected regions – people’s lives are being cut by six years. This makes air pollution the single biggest threat to human health, more than smoking and Aids.
Michael Greenstone, the director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, who led the work, said: “While people can stop smoking and take steps to protect themselves from diseases, there is little they can individually do to protect themselves from the air they breathe.”
Fossil fuel
Air pollution is also at the top of the agenda of the World Health Organisation. “We’re here to talk about both the problems as well as the solutions to this global health issue,” declared director general of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as he opened the first global summit to tackle the issue of air pollution.
More than 600 government representatives and health experts from at least 89 different countries have gathered to discuss what the head of WHO has labeled “the new tobacco”.
Worldwide, the WHO estimated that seven million premature deaths are linked to air pollution every year, of which nearly 600,000 are children.