The 2020 Global Air Condition Report - part of the US Environmental Protection Agency-funded Institute for Health Effects - looked at death tolls around the world and noted the growing risk of air pollution. . Half a million babies have lost their lives as a result of exposure to polluted air during the first months of life. Most deaths were reported in the countries of Africa and South Asia, followed by Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
Exposure to air pollutants is also harmful to babies in the womb. May cause premature birth or underweight. Nearly two-thirds of the documented deaths were related to indoor air pollution, particularly emanating from solid fuels such as charcoal.
Medical experts have warned for years about the negative effects of polluted air on older people and those with certain health conditions, but only recently have they begun to understand the risk to infants.
The report focuses on data for 2019, so the impacts of worldwide isolation policies due to the pandemic have not been included. The authors said (via the Guardian) that Covid-19 would have had an impact on air quality and deaths from air pollution, but the situation is still unclear.
In 2019, 6.7 million people died as a result of long-term exposure to air pollution, a factor that increases the risk of strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, lung cancer and other chronic lung diseases.
Burimet: Health Effects Institute, State of Global Air, National Geographic Society, Guardian
