New Delhi, September 27: Raising health concerns, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday mentioned that nine out of ten people globally are breathing poor air. In fact, more than six million people die every year because of breathing polluted air.
The head of the department of public, health, and environment of WHO, Maria Neira said that the new data in the report from UN global health body 'is enough to make all of us extremely concerned.'
The WHO experts assert that while the problem is acute in the cities, it is worse in the rural areas than many thinks. According to the report, poorer countries have much dirtier air than the developed world. Neira said that pollution 'affects practically all countries in the world and all parts of society.'
She said that it is a public health emergency. Urging the governments to cut the number of vehicles on the road, she said, "Fast action to tackle air pollution can’t come soon enough." She also called for improving waste management and promoting clean cooking fuel.
The report that came out on Tuesday was based on data collected from over 3,000 sites globally. It claims, '92 percent of the world’s population lives in places where air quality levels exceed WHO limits.'
The data of the report focusses on the dangerous particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres or PM2.5. It includes toxins like black carbon and sulfate which saturates the lungs or cardiovascular system. Air with more than 10 micro grammes per cubic metre of PM2.5 on an annual average basis is considered substandard.
Neira mentioned that UN agency now had more information than ever about the pollutants in the planet's air. Using both satellite and ground measurements “is a big step forward towards even more confident estimates of the huge global burden”, of dirty air, she added.
She said that nearly 90-percent of air pollution-related deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. The most affected countries remain China, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as per the data.
