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Air pollutants—from fossil fuels, car exhausts and industrial processes—are killing around one million people around the world every year.
The biggest culprit is coal, which alone accounts for nearly half of the deaths, researchers have discovered.
A research team at Washington University mapped the impact of air pollution in 200 countries in 2017, and the deadly toll that PM2.5 particulates has on people. “PM2.5 is the world’s leading environmental risk factor for mortality,” said Randall Martin, one of the researchers.
The sources of PM2.5 particulates varied from country to country, with cooking and heating with fossil fuels being the most prevalent, especially in Asia.
But it’s not all man-made. Dust from winds in Western sub-Sahara Africa was responsible for around 70 percent of the particulates in the region.
The analysis, which combines satellite imagery with disease levels in the countries, for the first time pinpoints the sources of air pollution, and so provides information that can allow countries to act and introduce counter measures.
(Source: Nature Communications, 2021; 12: doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23853-y)
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