The best ways to reduce air pollution and tackle climate change together

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Electrifying public transport is one way to lower both air pollution and carbon emissions Image:  REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido

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how to reduce air pollution in the world

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  • Prevailing wisdom holds that measures to reduce air pollution will also tackle climate change, and vice versa - but this is not always the case.
  • A new report has identified the most effective interventions for addressing both issues at once.

When we look at air pollution and climate change, we see two dire situations:

1. People, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), are becoming ill and dying prematurely because of the poor quality of the air they breathe. Air pollution is linked to an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths a year , according to the World Health Organization. When indoor air quality is considered, that number rises by an estimated 2.9 to 4.3 million deaths a year, according to The Lancet Commission .

2. Glacial ice is melting, droughts are becoming more prolonged, extreme weather events are more common, and cities around the world are reporting record-breaking heat, all against a backdrop of predictions from the International Panel on Climate Change of temperature increases between 2.5˚C and 10˚C over the next century.

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Air pollution in europe is decreasing but it still has some hotspots, youth can help fight air pollution in africa. here's how, here's a cost-effective way to improve air quality, indoor air pollution: what causes it and how to tackle it.

For years, the prevailing wisdom has argued that the same adverse conditions that propel climate change also are responsible for air pollution, and that by correcting one problem we can also solve the other.

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. Some interventions that can massively improve air quality and the health of people in affected communities, such as using lower-sulphur diesel fuel, have little or no impact on climate change. Others produce benefits for the climate but do not significantly impact health. And still other popular and often costly interventions do little to improve air quality or slow the pace of climate change.

With our partners – AirQualityAsia, The Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College, and with support from the Clean Air Fund – we set out to identify the most successful and practical actions that can improve health by reducing air pollution and impact climate change . Because very little analytical data is available about outcomes for specific interventions, our researchers and consultants went directly to those deeply involved in air pollution projects around the world to learn what had worked, what had not, and why.

The result of these efforts – a new report entitled Air Pollution Interventions: Seeking the Intersection between Climate and Health – is intended to help governments and policy-makers identify and implement the most effective interventions for their communities and particular situations.

reduce-air-pollution-interventions-have-the-greatest-impact

When we talk about adverse health effects from air pollution, our report focuses primarily on particulate matter 2.5 microns and smaller in size (PM2.5), which are largely produced by carbon burning. These microscopic particles, less than one-thirtieth the width of a human air, pass through the lungs and into the bloodstream where they are carried throughout the body to cause damage to respiratory, cardiovascular, and other systems, and according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation account for more than 85% of air pollution-related mortality .

With regard to climate change, the report mainly looks at activities that increase atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and black carbon.

PM2.5, black carbon and CO2 are largely the byproducts of carbon burning. The three primary sources are:

1. Energy generation from coal and natural gas

2. Public and private transportation of people and goods using diesel or gasoline

3. Open fires, mostly crop burning and forest fires, but also uncontrolled waste incineration

Coal-fired power plants are the granddaddies of air pollution and climate change – and we've known this for some time. Likewise, the single most effective action governments can take to improve air quality and to impact climate change is to phase out the use of coal and other fossil fuels, such as tar and lignite, for power generation.

If you take a big coal-fired power plant in the middle of a city and replace it with renewable energy, that's a huge step to reduce air pollution. Converting coal-fired power plants to natural gas or installing scrubbers reduces PM2.5 emissions – and so benefits health – but the carbon-burning power plants are still producing CO2 and climate-changing emissions. While moving that coal-fired power plant outside the city may be politically popular with millions of city dwellers (less so, perhaps, with people near the new plant), the action is costly and does nothing to benefit health or climate change.

Mortality rates from air pollution around the world

Best ways to reduce air pollution

Other significant interventions that improve both health by reducing PM2.5 and impact climate change by reducing CO2 emissions include:

• Replacing diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles. Shenzhen, China, for instance, has switched from diesel-powered public transportation to an electric bus fleet with an expected 48% reduction in CO2 emissions and significant reductions in particulate matter.

• Eliminating uncontrolled diesel emissions. Studies have found that reducing vehicle fleet levels from the equivalent of Euro I to Euro IV can reduce fleet emissions by about 80% and moving up to Euro V standards further reduces the remaining emissions by 80%. This is a great step to remove air pollution and CO2 levels.

• Preventing crop burning. Specific technologies and education can improve outcomes for farmers without burning – creating win-win situations. Education and support for agricultural extension programmes in developing countries are key to their success. Poland, for example, has largely phased out the practice of burning the stubble left after the wheat harvest. Government initiatives in Delhi to combat crop burning, a significant source of air pollution, include awareness and capacity building, technological interventions, and subsidies for farmers to purchase straw management machines. Still, the twice-annual traditional crop burning contributes significantly to Delhi's notorious haze.

Our team considered 22 interventions with dozens of supporting case studies with the goal of helping governments and policy-makers determine which interventions may be most practical and beneficial for their particular problems.

Climate change poses an urgent threat demanding decisive action. Communities around the world are already experiencing increased climate impacts, from droughts to floods to rising seas. The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report continues to rank these environmental threats at the top of the list.

To limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C and as close as possible to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, it is essential that businesses, policy-makers, and civil society advance comprehensive near- and long-term climate actions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The World Economic Forum's Climate Initiative supports the scaling and acceleration of global climate action through public and private-sector collaboration. The Initiative works across several workstreams to develop and implement inclusive and ambitious solutions.

This includes the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, a global network of business leaders from various industries developing cost-effective solutions to transitioning to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. CEOs use their position and influence with policy-makers and corporate partners to accelerate the transition and realize the economic benefits of delivering a safer climate.

Contact us to get involved.

We know that exposure to PM2.5 makes people more susceptible to respiratory illnesses; preliminary studies and anecdotal reporting early in the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that infection rates initially were higher and illnesses more severe in cities with poorer air quality. We also know that increasingly the citizenry is demanding that its leaders take swift and sure action to combat air pollution, as underscored by a recent survey by the Clean Air Fund of people in the UK, Bulgaria, India, Nigeria and Poland. As The New York Times reports , the survey, which was conducted during the pandemic between 22 May 22 and 2 June, found overwhelming support for stricter air quality regulations and better enforcement of existing rules. In Nigeria and India, for instance, 90% of those surveyed said they wanted improved air quality.

The most important step for municipal and national agencies to reduce air pollution is to raise their level of ambition in achieving their air quality and climate objectives. The overall aim must be an economy where development is uncoupled from resource use and energy provision is de-carbonized. Short-term actions can then be selected and implemented within that framework.

The solutions exist – and with technical support, strategic funding, and public and private initiatives, we can successfully improve public health and combat climate change.

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Air Pollution

Our overview on both indoor and outdoor air pollution.

By Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser

This article was first published in October 2017; last revised in January 2021.

Air pollution is one of the world's largest health and environmental problems. It develops in two contexts: indoor (household) air pollution and outdoor air pollution.

In this topic page we look at the aggregate picture of air pollution – both indoor and outdoor. We also have dedicated topic pages that look in more depth at these subjects:

Indoor Air Pollution

Look in detail at the data and research on the health impacts of Indoor Air Pollution, attributed deaths, and its causes across the world

Outdoor Air Pollution

Look in detail at the data and research on exposure to Outdoor Air Pollution, its health impacts and attributed deaths across the world

Look in detail at the data and research on energy consumption, its impacts around the world today, and how this has changed over time

See all interactive charts on Air Pollution ↓

Air pollution is one of the world's leading risk factors for death

Air pollution is responsible for millions of deaths each year.

Air pollution – the combination of outdoor and indoor particulate matter, and ozone – is a risk factor for many of the leading causes of death including heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, lung cancer, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in its Global Burden of Disease study provide estimates of the number of deaths attributed to the range of risk factors for disease. 1

In the visualization we see the number of deaths per year attributed to each risk factor. This chart is shown for the global total, but can be explored for any country or region using the "change country" toggle.

Air pollution is one of the leading risk factors for death. In low-income countries, it is often very near the top of the list (or is the leading risk factor).

Air pollution contributes to 11.65% of deaths globally

Globally, air pollution contributed to 11.65% of deaths in the latest year. 2

In the map shown here we see the share of deaths attributed to air pollution across the world.

Air pollution is one of the leading risk factors for disease burden

Air pollution is one of the leading risk factors for death. But its impacts go even further, also being one of the main contributors to global disease burden.

Global disease burden takes into account not only years of life lost to early death, but also the number of years lived in poor health.

In the visualization we see risk factors ranked in order of DALYs – disability-adjusted life years – the metric used to assess disease burden. Again, air pollution is near the top of the list making it one of the leading risk factors for poor health across the world.

Air pollution not only takes years from peoples' lives, but also had large effect on quality while they're still living.

Who is most affected by air pollution?

Death rates from air pollution are highest in low-to-middle income countries.

Air pollution is a health and environmental issue across all countries of the world, but with large differences in severity.

In the interactive map we show death rates from air pollution across the world, measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people of a given country or region.

The burden of air pollution tends to be greater across both low and middle income countries for two reasons: indoor pollution rates tend to be high in low-income countries due to a reliance on solid fuels for cooking; and outdoor air pollution tends to increase as countries industrialize and shift from low-to-middle incomes.

A map of the number deaths from air pollution by country can be found here .

How are death rates from air pollution changing?

Death rates from air pollution are falling – mainly due to improvements in indoor pollution.

In the visualization we show global death rates from air pollution over time – shown as the total air pollution, in addition to the individual contributions from outdoor and indoor pollution.

Globally we see that in recent decades the death rates from total air pollution has declined: since 1990 death rates have nearly halved. But, as we see from the breakdown, this decline has been primarily driven by improvements in indoor air pollution.

Death rates from indoor air pollution have seen an impressive decline, whilst improvements in outdoor pollution have been much more modest.

You can explore this data for any country or region using the "change country" toggle on the interactive chart.

Interactive charts on air pollution

Murray, C. J., Aravkin, A. Y., Zheng, P., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K. M., Abbasi-Kangevari, M., ... & Borzouei, S. (2020). Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 .  The Lancet ,  396 (10258), 1223-1249.

Here we use the term 'contributes', meaning it was one of the attributed risk factors for a given disease or cause of death. There can be multiple risk factors for a given disease which corroborate or amplify one another when both are present. This means that in some cases, air pollution was not the only risk factor but one of several.

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Clean air for a sustainable world

Nature Communications volume  12 , Article number:  5824 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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Air pollution is a cause of disease for millions around the world and now more than ever urgent action is required to tackle the burden of its impacts. Doing so will not only improve both life expectancy and quality of life, but will also lead to a more just and sustainable world.

Recently, we announced that we will publish a new series of collections focused on issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We start this series with a multidisciplinary collection on air pollution. As tackling air pollution is not one of the core SDGs, this may seem like an unusual choice. It is, however, a pressing environmental hazard affecting an ever increasing part of the world’s population. Currently, 91% of the world’s population live in locations where pollution levels exceed WHO guidelines, and in a recent announcement the WHO have further cut the recommended limits. Air pollution kills around 6.7 million people per year mainly through respiratory and cardiovascular diseases 1 , and has significant impacts on mental health. The main pollutants are sourced from fossil fuel combustion for transport, industry, agriculture and cooking stoves and, therefore, air pollution is linked directly with fulfilling many of our basic needs. As the SDGs aim to tackle the issue of how humanity can live sustainably, it is thus no surprise that addressing air pollution is related to the SDGs in many different ways. Promoting specific SDGs will lead to improved air quality as a side-effect, while reducing emissions will also progress a number of SDGs directly.

The high air pollution levels that we live with today is another demonstration of how our unsustainable lifestyles are one of the key challenges that needs to be overcome to create a more just and liveable world, which is the ultimate goal of the SDGs.

how to reduce air pollution in the world

Although air pollution is a global issue, exposure is often not distributed equally. Industrial processes related to the production, trade and consumption of goods is a key source of air pollution. Much of this pollution is released in low- and middle-income countries while they manufacture goods that are traded abroad, allowing rich countries to outsource the air pollution and health effects of their consumption. Hence, global implementation of responsible consumption and sustainable production practices—the focus of SDG9 (“Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure”) and SDG12 (“Responsible Consumption and Production”)—will be key to reduce this unequal responsibility and exposure to dangerous environmental conditions.

Inequality in exposure does not only occur at an international level, but also within countries. Systematic and historical forms of discrimination often translate into higher exposure levels and, hence, enhanced health burdens to marginalized groups around the world. This is probably best studied in the US, where people of colour are shown to live under poorer air quality, independent of other factors like income 2 . In a commentary for our collection Viniece Jennings highlights that whilst green infrastructure has the potential to reduce air pollution, unequal access can limit improvements for marginalised communities 3 . While we often think of air pollution as an outdoor issue, much of the exposure to harmful particles actually happens inside houses. Household air pollution is mainly related to cooking, heating or lighting, often through the combustion of solid fuels. This exposure affects women and children disproportionately, especially in the developing world 4 . Consequently, targeting SDG10 (“Reduce inequality within and among countries”) and SDG 7 (“Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”) will be of vital importance to tackle embedded inequalities within and among countries to reduce air pollution exposure.

Air pollution and climate change are closely intertwined as they share the same root cause of human emissions. Even though ambitious climate mitigation policies do not come for free, they will in many cases also lead to improved air quality and lower health costs. The societal costs of air pollution avoided through reduced exposure levels as a result of climate mitigation measures alone are thought to outweigh the initial costs of these policies 5 . Air pollution also physically interacts with the climate system; particles in the atmosphere affect surface temperatures as well as clouds and precipitation. Climate change thus has the potential to “worsen air pollution, even in areas where it has been improving”, as pointed out by Denise Mauzarell in a Q&A for our Clean Air collection 6 . An example of this are the dangerous pollutants released by wildfires that are expected to become ever more frequent and intense in many parts of the world.

Similarly, to climate mitigation, improving air quality depends on strict and ambitious regulatory policies and controls, which must be implemented equitably. In this regard, there are reasons to be optimistic, as strict air quality policies like the Clean Air Act in the US and similar policies in Europe have resulted in reductions in pollution since the 1970s even though levels are still too high and continued efforts are crucial. These efforts show that ambitious policy supported by technological advances like improved filtering and modernization can be successful. These efforts should not only be done at national levels, but also need international collaboration, technology and knowledge transfer in order to acknowledge the shared responsibilities of air pollution. As part of the Clean Air collection we highlight papers Nature Communications has published that look at how policy and technology can be part of the solution to air pollution.

The high air pollution levels that we live with today is another demonstration of how our unsustainable lifestyles are one of the key challenges that needs to be overcome to create a more just and liveable world, which is the ultimate goal of the SDGs. Of course, reducing air pollution on its own will not meet the aims of all the other SDGs. Still, it is an illustrative example of how an interdisciplinary focus on a measurable and technologically approachable issue can help to also achieve other goals. It is in this spirit that our collection brings together research from different disciplines, such as applied scientists, economists, political scientists, health scientists and climate scientists as it is this interdisciplinary collaboration that Nature Communications wants to support will be vital in informing policy and decision makers. We envision that our collection on Clean Air will continue to grow and we welcome submissions across disciplines in this area.

GBD Global Risk Factors Collaborators. Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2019. Lancet 396 , 1223–1249 (2020).

Tessum, C. W. et al. PM 2.5 polluters disproportionately and systemically affect people of color in the United States. Sci. Adv. 7 , 18 (2021).

Jennings, V., Reid C. E., & Fuller C. H. Green infrastructure can limit but not solve air pollution injustice. Nat. Commun. 12 , 4681 (2021).

Gordon, S. B., et al. Respiratory risks from household air pollution in low and middle income countries. Lancet Respir. Med. 2 , 823–860 (2014).

Vandyck, T. et al. Air quality co-benefits for human health and agriculture counterbalance costs to meet Paris Agreement pledges. Nat. Commun. 9 , 4939 (2018).

Nat. Commun. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25491-w .

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how to reduce air pollution in the world

What You Need to Know About Climate Change and Air Pollution

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#ShowYourStripes graphic by Professor Ed Hawkins (University of Reading) https://showyourstripes.info/

How big a problem is air pollution globally?

Air pollution is the world’s leading environmental cause of illness and premature death. Fine air pollution particles or aerosols, also known as fine particulate matter or PM 2.5 , are responsible for 6.4 million deaths every year, caused by diseases such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, type 2 diabetes, and neonatal disorders. About 95% of these deaths occur in developing countries, where billions of people are exposed to outdoor and indoor concentrations of PM 2.5 that are multiple times higher than guidelines established by the World Health Organization. A World Bank report estimated that the cost of the health damage caused by air pollution amounts to $8.1 trillion a year, equivalent to 6.1% of global GDP.

Poor people, elderly people, and young children who come from poor families are the most affected and the least likely to be able to cope with the health impacts that come with air pollution. Global health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic weaken the resilience of societies. Compounding this, exposure to air pollution is linked to increased incidence of COVID-19-related hospital admissions and mortality. In addition to health, air pollution is also linked to biodiversity and ecosystem loss , and has adverse impacts on human capital . Reducing air pollution, on the other hand, not only improves health but strengthens economies. A recent World Bank study found that a 20% decrease in PM 2.5 concentration is associated with a 16% increase in employment growth rate and a 33% increase in labor productivity growth rate .

A World Bank report estimated that the cost of the health damage caused by air pollution amounts to $8.1 trillion a year, equivalent to 6.1% of global GDP.

How is air pollution related to climate change?

Air pollution and climate change are two sides of the same coin, but they are typically addressed separately. They should be tackled jointly, with a focus on protecting peoples’ health – particularly in low- and middle-income countries – to strengthen human capital and reduce poverty.

Air pollutants and greenhouse gases often come from the same sources, such as coal-fired power plants and diesel-fueled vehicles. Some air pollutants do not last long in the environment, notably black carbon – a part of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ). Other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) include methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and ground-level or tropospheric ozone. SLCPs are far more potent climate warmers than carbon dioxide. Methane is a precursor of ground-level ozone, which according to the Climate and Clean air Coalition and Stockholm Environment Institute, kills about a million people each year, and is 80 times more potent at warming the planet than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Their relatively short lifespans, coupled with their strong warming potential, means that interventions to reduce SLCP emissions can deliver climate benefits in a relatively short time. If we address short-lived climate pollutants, we gain dual benefits: better air quality and improved health where we live, and the global benefit of mitigating climate change.

A World Bank study found that PM 2.5 from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal combustion or diesel-fueled vehicle emissions is among the most toxic types of PM 2.5 . Particles from these sources are more damaging to health than particles from most other air pollution sources. Addressing these sources of PM 2.5 -- like coal combustion and traffic – would address the most toxic air pollution. Given that these sources are also key contributors to climate warming, tackling air pollution from these sources also mitigates climate change.  

What are some requirements for effectively addressing air pollution?

Measure it and monitor it . Many developing countries do not have even rudimentary infrastructure for measuring air pollution. A World Bank study found that there was only one PM 2.5 ground-level monitor per 65 million people in low-income countries , and one per 28 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa;  in contrast, there is one monitor per 370,000 people in high-income countries. This is a serious issue, because you cannot properly manage what you do not measure. If you don't know how bad your problem is, you won’t know whether anything you do to fix it is effective. Countries need to establish ground-level monitoring networks and operate and maintain them properly so they yield reliable air quality data.

Know the main sources of air pollution and their contributions to poor air quality. For example, in City A, transport may be the biggest contributor, but in City B, it could be something completely different, such as emissions from dirty cooking fuels seeping from homes into the outside environment. With this information you can target interventions appropriately to abate air pollution. There are certainly intuitive, no-regret steps cities and countries can take to tackle air pollution, such as shifting to clean buses or renewable energy. But if you want to address air pollution comprehensively, you need to understand what your own sources are.

Disseminate air quality data to the public . People have a right to know the quality of the air they're breathing. Disseminating this information exerts pressure on those who can make the needed changes. Air quality data should be easily accessible in formats that are widely understood so people can reduce their exposure to air pollution and protect vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly, and people with health conditions that can be exacerbated by poor air quality.

What are some interventions that countries can implement to reduce air pollution?

Reducing air pollution may require physical investments or it may require policy reforms or both. Not every intervention fits every context. Interventions whose benefits (notably improved health) outweigh the costs should be selected. Part of our work at the World Bank is to incorporate climate change considerations into analysis so that the climate benefits of improving air quality can be taken into account in the decision-making process. A few examples of interventions to improve air quality in different sectors:

  • Energy : Change the energy mix to include cleaner, renewable energy sources and phase out subsidies that promote use of polluting fuels.
  • Industry: Use renewable fuels, adopt cleaner production measures, and install scrubbers and electrostatic precipitators in industrial facilities to filter particulates from emissions before they are released into the air.
  • Transport : Change from diesel to electric vehicles, install catalytic converters in vehicles to reduce toxicity of emissions, establish vehicle inspection and maintenance programs.
  • Agriculture : Discourage use of nitrogen-based fertilizers; improve nitrogen-use efficiency of agricultural soils; and improve fertilizer and manure management. Nitrogen-based fertilizers release ammonia, a precursor of secondary PM 2.5 formation. Nitrogen-based fertilizers can also be oxidized and emitted to the air as nitrous oxide, a long-lived greenhouse gas.
  • Cooking and heating : Promote clean cooking and heating solutions including clean stoves and boilers.
Part of our work at the World Bank is to incorporate climate change considerations into analysis so that the climate benefits of improving air quality can be taken into account in the decision-making process.

What is the World Bank doing to help?

The World Bank has invested about $52 billion in addressing pollution in the past two decades. However, we need to scale this up. Some successful projects that address air pollution include:

In China , we supported a program in the Hebei region , the largest contributor to air pollution in the country. The overall result was a reduction in the concentration of PM 2.5 in the atmosphere by almost 40% between 2013 and the end of 2017. The program linked loan disbursements to tangible results. Hebei issued the most stringent industrial emission standards in the country, replaced diesel buses with electric buses, coal stoves with gas stoves, and improved the efficiency of fertilizer use in agriculture. The program also supported effective use of a continuous emission monitoring system to track and enforce compliance by all major industrial enterprises in the province. The project delivered about 5 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions reductions per year through interventions such as the installation of new stoves in municipalities, and addition of a new clean energy bus fleet. The emissions reductions generated from the installation of 1,221,500 new stoves alone were equivalent to taking more than 860,000 passenger cars off the road each year.

In Peru , the World Bank is supporting a project to develop environmental information systems that includes expanding the country's air quality monitoring network to six new cities. The project is also developing new systems to disseminate information on environmental quality to the public.

In Egypt, we assessed the health impacts from environmental pollution, including the effects of ambient air pollution in Greater Cairo. We found that 19,200 people died prematurely and over 3 billion days were lived with illness in Egypt in 2017 as a result of PM 2.5 air pollution in Greater Cairo and inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene in all of Egypt. This analytical work has led to a project to reduce vehicle emissions, improve the management of solid waste, and strengthen the air and climate decision-making system in Greater Cairo .

In Vietnam , we are working with the rapidly growing city of Hanoi to simultaneously combat the issues of climate change and air pollution. We are supporting the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to improve the Air Quality Monitoring Network and develop an understanding of emissions sources, as well as an Air Quality Management Plan for the city.

In Lao PDR , the World Bank program supported the government in establishing stringent ambient air quality standards, including a standard for annual average concentrations of PM 2. in line with the World Health Organization’s air quality guideline value at the time. The program also supported the adoption of regulated procedures for sampling and analyzing PM 2.5 and PM 10 in air, and other pollutants in water.

We need to tackle air pollution and climate change challenges jointly rather than separately with a focus on protecting peoples’ health today, particularly in developing countries.

Can we expect better air quality in the future as countries decarbonize their economies?

First, we must continue to reduce poverty and meet the needs of poor people, whether through lower energy costs, ensuring cleaner air, or other means. With these goals in mind, we need to tackle air pollution and climate change challenges jointly rather than separately with a focus on protecting peoples’ health today, particularly in developing countries. The health benefits of reducing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels can occur in the near term. However, the reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would occur over a longer timeframe. If decarbonization efforts pay attention to non-CO 2 pollutants as well, notably PM 2.5 , we cannot only expect better air quality, but also health benefits in the short term.

Blog: Supporting a Breath of Fresh Air for Lagos

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how to reduce air pollution in the world

Perspectives

Fresh Air For All: A Remedy Within Reach

Air pollution is a major public health challenge with clear solutions in conservation.

May 20, 2020

By Joshua Goldstein, Bridge Collaborative Director & Heather Tallis, Global Managing Director, Science Strategy

"In these unprecedented times..."  We know, the phrase has become a cliché. But it's also true—these are unprecedented times, and we're all still working to fully understand what COVID-19 means for the world. As part of our effort to help make sense of these issues, we're publishing a new series of weekly perspectives from some of TNC's top scientists to share their expertise and talk about the relationship between nature and public health—and what nature can do for our communities in these, well, unprecedented times.

Previously in this series: "Greener Cities, Healthier Cities," by Rob McDonald, TNC Scientist "Conservation for the Last Mile, " by Priya Shyamsundar, TNC Lead Economist

Take a deep breath… how many times have you heard that phrase recently? From mindfulness apps and virtual yoga classes to furtive strolls around the neighborhood, stress-management has never been more encouraged. And so much of it comes back to that same, primal act of filling our lungs with air.

And yet depending whereabouts you live, inhaling a lungful may have surprisingly harmful effects on your well-being. Air pollution has long been a major health concern, and the problem threatens to get worse as congested cities proliferate across the planet and consumer lifestyles remain intertwined with an economy that runs on fossil fuels.

So when we as conservationists consider what we can do to help mitigate against the impact of future respiratory disease outbreaks, it’s crucial that the conversation doesn’t focus solely on the illegal wildlife trade or tropical deforestation as potential disease vectors. By addressing the drivers of air pollution, we are addressing not only a major public health issue but also some of the biggest challenges facing nature in general.

What sets a problem like air pollution apart is brutally simple: with air quality the majority of deaths are avoidable.

Even before COVID-19 broke cover in Wuhan, air pollution was an established killer—responsible for almost five million premature deaths per year globally and likely an indirect contributor to many more. Comparing this stat with, for example, the average annual death tolls for malaria (around 618,700 in 2017 ) or poor sanitation ( around 432,000 ) puts the scale of the air pollution problem into even sharper relief. Quite simply, it is the single largest environmental risk factor over which we have direct control, with the largest sources of air pollution health impacts coming from energy use (fossil fuels), as well as agricultural practices and biomass burning (including forest fires). 

In addition to being a killer in its own right, air pollution is also the perfect accomplice to other respiratory diseases like coronaviruses, pneumonia or the common flu. And while it’s important to recognize that scientists are only beginning to explore potential causal links between long-term exposure to unhealthy air and COVID-19 mortality, we do know that high levels of air pollution increase respiratory system distress, which can in turn lead to increased susceptibility to coronavirus infection and fatal outcomes. Evidence is also growing in China and other countries of the link between air pollution, premature deaths and reduced cognitive performance across all age groups, as well as findings from the United States highlighting the disproportionate health burden that air quality issues are placing on Black and Hispanic populations in particular.

Simply put, air pollution is hands-down one of the most serious global health issues we face. But the fact that many of the key drivers of this problem are also major drivers of biodiversity decline presents an opportunity for conservationists and environmental policymakers to address two major planetary challenges together. The same conservation interventions that act to stabilize the Earth’s climate, transform food systems, stop wildfires and transition households from solid fuels to clean energy sources would be transformational for nature—and prevent up to 4.9 million human deaths from pollution-related causes every year.

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Reducing emissions from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas is by far the most effective step we can take both to reduce air pollution and advance environmental conservation. The fossil emission cuts required to meet the Paris Climate Agreement, for example, could also reduce air pollution-related deaths by an estimated 153 million people each year.

A distant but important next best step would be reducing household dependence on wood fuel for heating and cooking, a practice that adds to air pollution while also driving the loss of irreplaceable forests and the many benefits they provide for carbon storage and wildlife habitat.

Some of the proposed economic stimulus packages to power national economies out of the COVID-19 slump have also suggested a weakening of existing air quality regulation. The science shows us that doing so would actually be a clear act of socioeconomic self-harm, leading to preventable and deadly air pollution.

What sets a problem like air pollution apart from the threat of COVID-19 is brutally simple: while we’ve shown ourselves to have little control over the spread of a highly contagious new coronavirus, with air quality the majority of deaths are avoidable. We know what causes them, we know how to stop it, and we know that doing so would also have a transformative impact on the natural ecosystems that underpin so many facets of our daily lives.

As we find ourselves navigating through the current global crisis, it's all the more critical that conservationists help to join the dots between public health and the natural world. The health of all living things depends on it. 

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Air Pollution: Everything You Need to Know

How smog, soot, greenhouse gases, and other top air pollutants are affecting the planet—and your health.

Smoke blows out of two tall industrial stacks

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What Is Air Pollution?

What causes air pollution, effects of air pollution, air pollution in the united states, air pollution and environmental justice, controlling air pollution, how to help reduce air pollution, how to protect your health.

Air pollution  refers to the release of pollutants into the air—pollutants that are detrimental to human health and the planet as a whole. According to the  World Health Organization (WHO) , each year, indoor and outdoor air pollution is responsible for nearly seven million deaths around the globe. Ninety-nine percent of human beings currently breathe air that exceeds the WHO’s guideline limits for pollutants, with those living in low- and middle-income countries suffering the most. In the United States, the  Clean Air Act , established in 1970, authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to safeguard public health by regulating the emissions of these harmful air pollutants.

“Most air pollution comes from energy use and production,” says  John Walke , director of the Clean Air team at NRDC. Driving a car on gasoline, heating a home with oil, running a power plant on  fracked gas : In each case, a fossil fuel is burned and harmful chemicals and gases are released into the air.

“We’ve made progress over the last 50 years in improving air quality in the United States, thanks to the Clean Air Act. But climate change will make it harder in the future to meet pollution standards, which are designed to  protect health ,” says Walke.

Air pollution is now the world’s fourth-largest risk factor for early death. According to the 2020  State of Global Air  report —which summarizes the latest scientific understanding of air pollution around the world—4.5 million deaths were linked to outdoor air pollution exposures in 2019, and another 2.2 million deaths were caused by indoor air pollution. The world’s most populous countries, China and India, continue to bear the highest burdens of disease.

“Despite improvements in reducing global average mortality rates from air pollution, this report also serves as a sobering reminder that the climate crisis threatens to worsen air pollution problems significantly,” explains  Vijay Limaye , senior scientist in NRDC’s Science Office. Smog, for instance, is intensified by increased heat, forming when the weather is warmer and there’s more ultraviolet radiation. In addition, climate change increases the production of allergenic air pollutants, including mold (thanks to damp conditions caused by extreme weather and increased flooding) and pollen (due to a longer pollen season). “Climate change–fueled droughts and dry conditions are also setting the stage for dangerous wildfires,” adds Limaye. “ Wildfire smoke can linger for days and pollute the air with particulate matter hundreds of miles downwind.”

The effects of air pollution on the human body vary, depending on the type of pollutant, the length and level of exposure, and other factors, including a person’s individual health risks and the cumulative impacts of multiple pollutants or stressors.

Smog and soot

These are the two most prevalent types of air pollution. Smog (sometimes referred to as ground-level ozone) occurs when emissions from combusting fossil fuels react with sunlight. Soot—a type of  particulate matter —is made up of tiny particles of chemicals, soil, smoke, dust, or allergens that are carried in the air. The sources of smog and soot are similar. “Both come from cars and trucks, factories, power plants, incinerators, engines, generally anything that combusts fossil fuels such as coal, gasoline, or natural gas,” Walke says.

Smog can irritate the eyes and throat and also damage the lungs, especially those of children, senior citizens, and people who work or exercise outdoors. It’s even worse for people who have asthma or allergies; these extra pollutants can intensify their symptoms and trigger asthma attacks. The tiniest airborne particles in soot are especially dangerous because they can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream and worsen bronchitis, lead to heart attacks, and even hasten death. In  2020, a report from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health showed that COVID-19 mortality rates were higher in areas with more particulate matter pollution than in areas with even slightly less, showing a correlation between the virus’s deadliness and long-term exposure to air pollution. 

These findings also illuminate an important  environmental justice issue . Because highways and polluting facilities have historically been sited in or next to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, the negative effects of this pollution have been  disproportionately experienced by the people who live in these communities.

Hazardous air pollutants

A number of air pollutants pose severe health risks and can sometimes be fatal, even in small amounts. Almost 200 of them are regulated by law; some of the most common are mercury,  lead , dioxins, and benzene. “These are also most often emitted during gas or coal combustion, incineration, or—in the case of benzene—found in gasoline,” Walke says. Benzene, classified as a carcinogen by the EPA, can cause eye, skin, and lung irritation in the short term and blood disorders in the long term. Dioxins, more typically found in food but also present in small amounts in the air, is another carcinogen that can affect the liver in the short term and harm the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, as well as reproductive functions.  Mercury  attacks the central nervous system. In large amounts, lead can damage children’s brains and kidneys, and even minimal exposure can affect children’s IQ and ability to learn.

Another category of toxic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are by-products of traffic exhaust and wildfire smoke. In large amounts, they have been linked to eye and lung irritation, blood and liver issues, and even cancer.  In one study , the children of mothers exposed to PAHs during pregnancy showed slower brain-processing speeds and more pronounced symptoms of ADHD.

Greenhouse gases

While these climate pollutants don’t have the direct or immediate impacts on the human body associated with other air pollutants, like smog or hazardous chemicals, they are still harmful to our health. By trapping the earth’s heat in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases lead to warmer temperatures, which in turn lead to the hallmarks of climate change: rising sea levels, more extreme weather, heat-related deaths, and the increased transmission of infectious diseases. In 2021, carbon dioxide accounted for roughly 79 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and methane made up more than 11 percent. “Carbon dioxide comes from combusting fossil fuels, and methane comes from natural and industrial sources, including large amounts that are released during oil and gas drilling,” Walke says. “We emit far larger amounts of carbon dioxide, but methane is significantly more potent, so it’s also very destructive.” 

Another class of greenhouse gases,  hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) , are thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide in their ability to trap heat. In October 2016, more than 140 countries signed the Kigali Agreement to reduce the use of these chemicals—which are found in air conditioners and refrigerators—and develop greener alternatives over time. (The United States officially signed onto the  Kigali Agreement in 2022.)

Pollen and mold

Mold and allergens from trees, weeds, and grass are also carried in the air, are exacerbated by climate change, and can be hazardous to health. Though they aren’t regulated, they can be considered a form of air pollution. “When homes, schools, or businesses get water damage, mold can grow and produce allergenic airborne pollutants,” says Kim Knowlton, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University and a former NRDC scientist. “ Mold exposure can precipitate asthma attacks  or an allergic response, and some molds can even produce toxins that would be dangerous for anyone to inhale.”

Pollen allergies are worsening  because of climate change . “Lab and field studies are showing that pollen-producing plants—especially ragweed—grow larger and produce more pollen when you increase the amount of carbon dioxide that they grow in,” Knowlton says. “Climate change also extends the pollen production season, and some studies are beginning to suggest that ragweed pollen itself might be becoming a more potent allergen.” If so, more people will suffer runny noses, fevers, itchy eyes, and other symptoms. “And for people with allergies and asthma, pollen peaks can precipitate asthma attacks, which are far more serious and can be life-threatening.”

how to reduce air pollution in the world

More than one in three U.S. residents—120 million people—live in counties with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to the  2023  State of the Air  report by the American Lung Association (ALA). Since the annual report was first published, in 2000, its findings have shown how the Clean Air Act has been able to reduce harmful emissions from transportation, power plants, and manufacturing.

Recent findings, however, reflect how climate change–fueled wildfires and extreme heat are adding to the challenges of protecting public health. The latest report—which focuses on ozone, year-round particle pollution, and short-term particle pollution—also finds that people of color are 61 percent more likely than white people to live in a county with a failing grade in at least one of those categories, and three times more likely to live in a county that fails in all three.

In rankings for each of the three pollution categories covered by the ALA report, California cities occupy the top three slots (i.e., were highest in pollution), despite progress that the Golden State has made in reducing air pollution emissions in the past half century. At the other end of the spectrum, these cities consistently rank among the country’s best for air quality: Burlington, Vermont; Honolulu; and Wilmington, North Carolina. 

No one wants to live next door to an incinerator, oil refinery, port, toxic waste dump, or other polluting site. Yet millions of people around the world do, and this puts them at a much higher risk for respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, neurological damage, cancer, and death. In the United States, people of color are 1.5 times more likely than whites to live in areas with poor air quality, according to the ALA.

Historically, racist zoning policies and discriminatory lending practices known as  redlining  have combined to keep polluting industries and car-choked highways away from white neighborhoods and have turned communities of color—especially low-income and working-class communities of color—into sacrifice zones, where residents are forced to breathe dirty air and suffer the many health problems associated with it. In addition to the increased health risks that come from living in such places, the polluted air can economically harm residents in the form of missed workdays and higher medical costs.

Environmental racism isn't limited to cities and industrial areas. Outdoor laborers, including the estimated three million migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the United States, are among the most vulnerable to air pollution—and they’re also among the least equipped, politically, to pressure employers and lawmakers to affirm their right to breathe clean air.

Recently,  cumulative impact mapping , which uses data on environmental conditions and demographics, has been able to show how some communities are overburdened with layers of issues, like high levels of poverty, unemployment, and pollution. Tools like the  Environmental Justice Screening Method  and the EPA’s  EJScreen  provide evidence of what many environmental justice communities have been explaining for decades: that we need land use and public health reforms to ensure that vulnerable areas are not overburdened and that the people who need resources the most are receiving them.

In the United States, the  Clean Air Act  has been a crucial tool for reducing air pollution since its passage in 1970, although fossil fuel interests aided by industry-friendly lawmakers have frequently attempted to  weaken its many protections. Ensuring that this bedrock environmental law remains intact and properly enforced will always be key to maintaining and improving our air quality.

But the best, most effective way to control air pollution is to speed up our transition to cleaner fuels and industrial processes. By switching over to renewable energy sources (such as wind and solar power), maximizing fuel efficiency in our vehicles, and replacing more and more of our gasoline-powered cars and trucks with electric versions, we'll be limiting air pollution at its source while also curbing the global warming that heightens so many of its worst health impacts.

And what about the economic costs of controlling air pollution? According to a report on the Clean Air Act commissioned by NRDC, the annual  benefits of cleaner air  are up to 32 times greater than the cost of clean air regulations. Those benefits include up to 370,000 avoided premature deaths, 189,000 fewer hospital admissions for cardiac and respiratory illnesses, and net economic benefits of up to $3.8 trillion for the U.S. economy every year.

“The less gasoline we burn, the better we’re doing to reduce air pollution and the harmful effects of climate change,” Walke explains. “Make good choices about transportation. When you can, ride a bike, walk, or take public transportation. For driving, choose a car that gets better miles per gallon of gas or  buy an electric car .” You can also investigate your power provider options—you may be able to request that your electricity be supplied by wind or solar. Buying your food locally cuts down on the fossil fuels burned in trucking or flying food in from across the world. And most important: “Support leaders who push for clean air and water and responsible steps on climate change,” Walke says.

  • “When you see in the news or hear on the weather report that pollution levels are high, it may be useful to limit the time when children go outside or you go for a jog,” Walke says. Generally, ozone levels tend to be lower in the morning.
  • If you exercise outside, stay as far as you can from heavily trafficked roads. Then shower and wash your clothes to remove fine particles.
  • The air may look clear, but that doesn’t mean it’s pollution free. Utilize tools like the EPA’s air pollution monitor,  AirNow , to get the latest conditions. If the air quality is bad, stay inside with the windows closed.
  • If you live or work in an area that’s prone to wildfires,  stay away from the harmful smoke  as much as you’re able. Consider keeping a small stock of masks to wear when conditions are poor. The most ideal masks for smoke particles will be labelled “NIOSH” (which stands for National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and have either “N95” or “P100” printed on it.
  • If you’re using an air conditioner while outdoor pollution conditions are bad, use the recirculating setting to limit the amount of polluted air that gets inside. 

This story was originally published on November 1, 2016, and has been updated with new information and links.

This NRDC.org story is available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as grammar); you can’t resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you can’t republish our material wholesale or automatically—you need to select stories individually; you can’t republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when you’ve used one of our stories.

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Staying Healthy

Air pollution: How to reduce harm to your health

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Get regular exercise. Don't smoke. Control high blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol. These are age-old words of wisdom for a healthful life. But when was the last time your doctors told you to avoid exposure to pollution? Accumulating evidence about the impact of pollution on our health suggests that this should be another recommendation — though it wouldn't be easy to follow.

What is pollution?

A simple description of pollution is anything introduced into the environment by humans and that harms human health or ecosystems. As such, there are many kinds of pollution — in the air, water, and soil — which can take the form of gases, heavy metals, chemicals, bacteria, and even noise.

Let's focus here on air pollution. Outdoor air pollution includes the burning of fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) and wildfires. These generate noxious gases, smog (created by ground-level ozone), and soot (fine particles) that are harmful to breathe. Among the contributors to indoor air pollution are fireplaces and home cookstoves that use gas, coal, or biomass fuels such as wood or crop waste that are sometimes used in low-income countries.

Air pollution is a complex and vicious cycle. Its toxic effects are worsened by increased temperatures . Higher temperatures in turn increase the risk of uncontrolled wildfires and the use of energy (think of air conditioners). Both can release greenhouse gases that further drive climate change, which in turn raises temperatures and feeds other extreme weather around the globe, an ever-worsening cycle that continues to repeat.

In the United States, air pollution has improved quite a bit since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970. However, some air pollutant levels have risen in the last few years, and air pollution continues to have serious ongoing health impacts, both nationally and globally.

How does air pollution affect your health?

Numerous studies over the years have repeatedly shown that increased outdoor air levels of fine particulate matter correspond to increased hospitalizations for heart disease, stroke , diabetes , pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation , and other serious health problems. Both long-term exposure and short-term exposure seem to matter.

A study published this year looked at global models of pollution levels and risk assessments of the world population over 14 years. It ties fossil fuel combustion alone to nearly nine million premature deaths worldwide in 2018 — that's one in five deaths — including more than 350,000 in the US. Most of these deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes.

Who is especially vulnerable to the potential effects of air pollution? Anyone who is elderly, young, or pregnant, and anyone with underlying diseases such as a heart or a lung condition. Additionally, people living in low-income communities , which are often situated near industrial plants or high-traffic areas, are disproportionately affected.

What can you do to reduce the harms of pollution?

Use the air quality index (AQI) as a guide to help you. The EPA developed the AQI to measure the air quality. You can track it specifically for where you live at AirNow . When the AQI is in the unhealthy zones, try to avoid outdoor activities, especially near traffic-congested areas. Stay indoors and close the windows while using air conditioners and fans when it's hot, if possible, to keep you from getting overheated . Or, when you go outside, wear a mask: cloth masks and surgical masks may help with larger particles, but only certain masks like N95s will filter fine particles. It also helps to change your clothes upon your return home.

Be thoughtful about transportation. Think about healthier alternatives to driving whenever you can. Buy local produce, if this is an option for you, to further cut down on global shipping and transportation that contribute to air pollution. And when driving, don't idle your car (note: automatic download), which is estimated to waste three billion gallons of fuel and generate 30 million tons of the major greenhouse gas carbon dioxide per year in the US.

Change out your gas stove. When it is time for a new stove, choose induction or electric stoves over gas stoves. Induction cooktops not only avert indoor pollution, but also use the least amount of energy.

Consider using air purifiers. Although they do not remove all pollutants, they can improve indoor air quality. Choose an air purifier that has a high clean air delivery rate (CADR) matched for the size of your room.

Replace filters. Changing your air conditioner and air purifier filters regularly will improve your air quality and reduce energy use.

Promote clean, renewable energy. Whether it's opting for a 100% renewable energy plan or voting for leaders that prioritize renewable energy, taking steps to decrease fossil fuel use has the double benefit of combatting climate change and air pollution, ultimately working toward a sustainable future with a healthier planet and a healthier you.

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About the Author

Wynne Armand, MD , Contributor

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February 8, 2024

Air Pollution Threatens Millions of Lives. Now the Sources Are Shifting

As EPA tightens air pollution standards for particulate matter, new research suggests some components of that pollution could worsen with climate change

By Virginia Gewin

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Particle-based ambient air pollution causes more than 4 million premature deaths each year globally, according to the World Health Organization. The tiniest particles—2.5 microns or smaller, known as PM 2.5 —pose the greatest health risk because they can travel deep into the lungs and may even get into the bloodstream.

Although total PM 2.5 levels have decreased 42 percent in the U.S. since 2000 as a result of clean air regulations, scientists are concerned about the health impacts of even low levels of such pollution. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lowered the annual national air quality standard for PM 2.5 from 12 to nine micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m 3 ) this week. EPA administrator Michael Regan said in a press conference that officials estimate the new standard will save up to $46 billion dollars in avoided health care and hospitalization costs by 2032. “Health benefits will include up to 800,000 avoided cases of asthma symptoms, 4,500 avoided premature deaths, and 290,000 avoided lost workdays,” he said. The World Health Organization adopted an even lower 5 µg/m 3 standard in 2021, citing the growing evidence of deadly harm.

Beyond investigating their size, scientists are also digging into the chemistry of airborne particles, which, unlike other regulated pollutants such as lead and ozone, encompass a wide array of solid and liquid particles from soot to nitrate. Some airborne particles are directly emitted from car tailpipes or industrial sources; others form in the atmosphere. And the balance of those is shifting. To help states meet the tougher air standards, scientists will need more detailed studies of particle sources.

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In July 2022, for the first time in more than a decade, teams of scientists conducted an intensive campaign to characterize what’s in the summertime soup of particles that New York City residents breathe. The researchers measured the chemical makeup of PM 2.5 over the course of a month.

The team found that the PM 2.5 was 80 to 83 percent organic, or carbon-based —up from roughly 50 percent in 2001, according to the study, which was published January 22 in ACS ES&T Air . “Over the past 20 years, summertime particulate matter has shifted to organic aerosols due largely to the successful reductions of sulfate and other inorganic compounds,” says Tori Hass-Mitchell, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student at Yale University.

Roughly 76 percent of the total organic aerosols measured by the study in New York City were not directly emitted from a source but rather formed in the atmosphere. These so-called secondary organic aerosols are produced when gases, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), oxidize in the atmosphere. VOCs are produced by a wide range of sources such as cars, vegetation and household chemicals, including cosmetics and cleaners , which complicates efforts to identify the most impactful sources.

Hass-Mitchell and colleagues’ paper is the first to include data from the Atmospheric Science and Chemistry Measurement Network ( ASCENT)—a network of 12 sites around the U.S. that is the first long-term monitoring system able to chemically characterize distinct particle types. Sally Ng, who led the design of the $12-million, National Science Foundation–funded network, says Europe has had similar measurement capabilities for more than five years. “It’s time for the U.S. to modernize its air quality measurement infrastructure,” says Ng, an aerosol scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a co-author of the New York City study.

Recent studies have shown that secondary organic aerosols may be linked to serious health problems—especially cardiovascular disease. A study published last September in Environmental Science & Technology found that as organic aerosols oxidize, they produce highly reactive molecules that can break down human cells and cause tissue damage . Oxidized organic aerosols are the most toxic organic component of PM 2.5 , Ng says. And her work suggests that secondary organic aerosols become more toxic the longer they oxidize in the atmosphere.

Havala Pye, an EPA research scientist, co-authored a separate 2021 Nature study that found that secondary organic aerosols are strongly associated with county-level heart and lung disease death rates in the U.S. Secondary organic aerosols were associated with a 6.5 times higher mortality rate than PM 2.5 .

“There’s a good chance the aerosols are becoming more toxic on a per mass basis, and secondary organic aerosols would be part of the reason why,” says Allen Robinson, an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University, who was not involved in the new research or Pye’s study. In other words, breathing more oxidized aerosols may be more toxic to humans. But the literature looking at health effects of individual components of PM 2.5 is messy, Robinson notes. More work is needed to unravel the impact of complex combinations of different particle sizes and chemistries in PM 2.5 , he explains. Pye also cautions that consistent results from repeated experiments are needed to verify whether secondary organic aerosols carry significantly greater health risks than other particles that make up PM 2.5 .

Will a warming climate worsen air pollution health risks?

Previous studies have found that warmer temperatures can lead to greater production of these secondary organic aerosols. Hass-Mitchell and colleagues found in the new study that secondary organic aerosol production increased by 60 percent and 42 percent in Queens and Manhattan, respectively, during a sweltering five-day heat wave in July 2022. “We should expect higher health burdens as temperatures rise in a warming climate, with potentially more frequent extreme heat events in the future,” Hass-Mitchell says.

“Secondary organic aerosols are an increasingly important contributor to particulate matter in the summertime and urban air quality, and [they have] a temperature sensitivity that is really important to keep in mind in the context of future climate scenarios,” says Drew Gentner, a chemical and environmental engineer at Yale University and senior author of the new paper. These compounds “are becoming more oxidized at higher temperatures,” he adds, and increased temperatures can cause greater emissions of reactive volatile organic compounds.

And as temperatures increase amid climate change, more frequent and severe wildfires have already begun to chip away at air quality gains in western states. Although Hass-Mitchell and colleagues didn’t observe smoke from wildfires in the summer of 2022, they expect that organic aerosols from wildfires—such as those in the smoke that choked much of the Northeast and Midwest last summer—will also play a major role as the climate changes.

Many other cities, such as Los Angeles, Atlanta and Seoul, have also documented an increasing proportion of PM 2.5 from secondary organic aerosols. But the exact mix of natural versus human-produced sources varies widely from city to city. To continue reducing PM 2.5 , “we need to understand the underlying sources and chemistry contributing to secondary organic aerosol production,” Gentner says.

Until the early 2000s, both the tools to measure secondary organic aerosols and the understanding of their formation were limited, says Benjamin Nault, a co-author of the New York City study and a research scientist at Johns Hopkins University. Currently, most instruments are designed to measure either the size or the chemistry of aerosols but not both, he says. Scientists rely on models to determine how much secondary organic aerosol comes from, for example, live vegetation, asphalt or cooking. But it’s unclear whether some sources are more harmful than others. “There are different signatures for the chemicals that come from taking a shower versus painting [a house],” he says. “Now we’re trying to understand how they come together in an urban environment.”

And that improved understanding is leading to more nuanced pollution research. “As aerosol studies advance, with increasing capabilities to examine the various chemical components of aerosols, we can ask important questions about the relative impact of those components on air quality, human health and the environment,” Gentner says. “It may be less straightforward to address secondary organic aerosol sources compared to primary sources of pollution, but studies [like ours] demonstrate that secondary organic aerosols are the biggest contributor in some urban areas.”

Reporting for this piece was supported by the Nova Institute for Health.

There’s Only One Way to Fix Air Pollution Now

Clean-air rules just can’t keep up with climate change.

Dark afternoon smoke from the Alamo Fire burning in the nearby coastal mountains, within view of the Pacific Ocean, creates an eerie, surreal scene on July 9, 2017, near Santa Maria, California.

It feels like a sin against the sanctitude of being alive to put a dollar value on one year of a human life. A year spent living instead of dead is obviously priceless, beyond the measure of something so unprofound as money. But it gets a price tag in the world of economic models. Different agencies and organizations use different estimates—no one can seem to agree on the precise going rate. But according to the Environmental Protection Agency, a statistical lifetime is valued at about $11.5 million in 2024 dollars. By one new analysis, that translates to about $250,000 per year of living.

That’s important to know, because the EPA is in the business of calculating how much money is lost or saved by preventing people’s early demise through various environmental regulations. Making contaminated water safer and dirty air cleaner costs money, but the country also benefits financially by keeping people alive. In the EPA’s own language, the agency simply estimates how much people are willing to pay to reduce their risk of dying from exposure to an unclean environment.

Polluted air is particularly important to the life-cost calculus. Air pollution is associated with some 100,000 to 200,000 American deaths each year. Particulate matter from burning fossil fuels is responsible for roughly one in five deaths worldwide. In the U.S., those lost life years and other air-pollution-related damages amount to about 5 percent of GDP . The U.S. has largely decided that the cost is worth it, more than made up for by the financial benefits of keeping the economy moving. But a pair of new analyses suggests that we may be getting that calculus wrong—that air pollution is already a silent but severe tax on human life and will get only more costly as the world warms.

In the first report , economists at MIT, the University of Chicago, McMaster University, and the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009—despite causing profound economic hardship—actually increased Americans’ life expectancy. And the economic advantages of those added life-years might even roughly equal the economic costs.

Using county-level data focused on local labor markets, they found that every 1 percent increase in unemployment led to a .5 percent decrease in the death rate. Some regions saw larger benefits than others, and young people, whose lifetime earning power is especially harmed in any recession, were likely still harmed more than helped, at least in the short term. But older Americans, who have naturally higher mortality rates, got especially lucky. Out of every 25 Americans age 55, for instance, one appears to have received an extra year of life. On average, across all age groups, the recession reduced the American mortality rate by 2.3 percent.

The recession officially lasted just 18 months, but life expectancy stayed elevated for at least 10 years. And crucially, the researchers estimate that more than a third of the reduction in deaths resulted from fewer commuters hitting the road, as well as lower industrial activity and electricity generation—in short, a reduction in air pollution.

When the team applied the value of a life-year to the recession-induced longevity, they suddenly saw the recession differently: What Americans lost in income and purchasing power, they gained in life-years, Matthew J. Notowidigdo, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an author of the paper, told me. “From a social-welfare perspective, they kind of even out.”

Remarkably, the recession seemed to even reduce the “ deaths of despair ” typically linked to economic downturns. For each 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate during the recession, deaths from drug overdose, liver disease, and suicide went down 1.4 percent in the years following it. The cleaner air of the Great Recession might have contributed: A recent study of suicide in China found that a major reduction in particulate-matter pollution during the country’s recent crackdown on pollution prevented some 46,000 such deaths in just five years.

The China study is not the first to link dirty air with suicide. And that makes sense, given the many connections researchers are now drawing between air pollution and cognitive outcomes. Ultra-small air-pollution particles known as PM2.5—so named because they are 2.5 microns or smaller in diameter, about 30 times narrower than a human hair—can cross the blood-brain barrier, and are linked to a suite of neurological harms. A 2023 paper found that Americans living in places with the country’s median level of PM2.5 air pollution had a 56 percent higher chance of developing Parkinson’s disease than those living in the cleanest air. High levels of PM2.5 appear to also be related to higher rates of dementia . In children, whose brains are still developing, exposure to PM2.5 has been associated with behavioral and cognitive problems.

Because particulate matter poses such a health risk, the U.S. has for more than half a century enforced rules limiting how much of it can leave tailpipes and smokestacks. Prior to the Clean Air Act, breathing was an outrageously hazardous activity in many towns and cities. On Halloween weekend in 1948, two dozen people suffocated to death in the city of Donora, Pennsylvania, when a windless weather pattern made pollution from the local zinc plant stall over the town.

Each year since the air-quality rules came into force, they have prevented nearly 250,000 premature deaths, staved off nearly 200,000 heart attacks, kept American adults at work a cumulative 17 million days, and boosted school attendance by 5.4 million days. But those benefits are now being swamped by another source of air pollution, one that’s far less directly manageable than cars and power plants: climate change. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the nonprofit First Street Foundation, which found that climate-change-fueled environmental conditions such as wildfires and ozone pollution are already reversing decades of air-quality gains for millions of Americans, a trend that will get worse for at least the next 30 years.

According to First Street, American air got better from the 1970s until 2016. Then, it began to reverse course. As the climate crisis deepens—specifically as more frequent, hotter wildfires bear down on the American West and as temperatures rise across the country—that degradation will continue. By 2054, the report projects, U.S. air quality will have degraded to what it was in 2004, wiping out years of progress. “We’re essentially adding back more premature deaths, we’re adding back more heart attacks,” Jeremy Porter, a demographer who serves as the head of climate implications at First Street, said during a webinar presenting the findings.

Read: A frightening new reason to worry about air pollution

The impacts will be worse across the West, where wildfires are set to cause the greatest increases in PM2.5 pollution. Pierce County, in Washington State, is projected to see 12 more days of poor air quality a year by 2054, the biggest increase in the country. The researchers defined poor air days as those with an Air Quality Index of 101 or above, the threshold at which the EPA says air becomes dangerous for sensitive groups (elderly people, children, and people with certain illnesses) and can impair lung function for a sizable portion of active, healthy people too. “Twelve days doesn’t sound like a lot, but you’re thinking about 12 more days being trapped in your house, not being able to go outside, worrying about the health consequences of being exposed to the poor air quality,” Porter said. California’s San Bernardino County came in second, with nine additional days, and Fresno County would add eight more days.

California is already experiencing the worst of what First Street called the “climate penalty” on air quality. Its number of “hazardous” air-quality days—the worst on the EPA’s Air Quality Index, indicating emergency conditions—increased from three in 2010 to 38 in 2021. “Very unhealthy” days, the next level down from “hazardous,” went from one to 17 over that period. The number of days designated as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” went up, from 15 to 55. And “good” air-quality days, when the air is considered safe for everyone to breathe, declined by 32 percent.

The First Street researchers described California’s situation as a glimpse into the rest of the country’s future under climate change, barring dramatic action to curb it. The East Coast and Great Lakes regions got a taste of that future last summer, when wildfire smoke blown over from Canada’s record burns turned the sky in some places a sickening orange. Notowidigdo told me that last year, he was working on the Great Recession paper when Canadian wildfires sent air quality plummeting in Chicago, where he lives. He and his kids were stuck inside, and wore masks if they had to go out. Still, the bad air got to them through their house’s walls.

Although clean-air rules served their purpose relatively well in the 20th century, today the pollution they regulate is being dwarfed by the consequences of a warming planet. You can’t put scrubbers on a wildfire. But you can cut off the fuel—climate change—coaxing them to get bigger. The faster the American economy moves away from fossil energy, the sooner the burns stop growing.

That transition will be expensive. But the science makes clear that Americans are already paying steep costs, and stand to pay even more in the coming decades. GDP, as Notowidigdo and his colleagues note, may be an incomplete proxy for the true health of society. As long as economic growth is linked to polluting industries, it will come at the cost of human health. As such, we live in a world where economic downturns can paradoxically save lives. But a country powered by clean energy could presumably prosper economically without killing people prematurely.

The air we breathe is worsening because of an expired calculation. Maybe it was always bunk. Now, preserving life depends on how quickly we can correct that equation.

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Pollution builds during rush hour at Kaiserdamm Street in Berlin.

EU countries could save 238,000 lives a year by meeting WHO air pollution guidelines

Benefits would quickly follow reductions in air pollution from traffic and home heating, argues European Environment Agency

Approximately 238,000 air pollution deaths could be avoided each year if the EU27 countries actually met World Health Organization guidelines for air pollution, according to figures from the European Environment Agency. And more than 400,000 deaths could be avoided if particle air pollution could be avoided completely.

On 20 February the EU Council agreed new legislation for clean air for 2030 and beyond. As EU countries work towards these new legal limits, a new study has estimated the benefits that could quickly arise with reductions in air pollution from traffic and home heating.

The academics looked at 41 European countries. They found that a 20% drop in road traffic pollution could reduce annual excess deaths across Europe by about 7,000 people a year by decreasing particle pollution. Germany tops the chart with potential decreases of more than 1,000 deaths annually; for the UK and Italy, it would be more than 500. These estimates were based on air pollution and health statistics from 2015.

A 20% decrease in air pollution from home heating would yield approximately 13,000 fewer deaths each year. East and central Europe would benefit most, due to high use of solid fuel for heating. Germany, Italy, Poland, Ukraine and Turkey would experience more than 1,000 fewer deaths each and the UK would sustain more than 650 fewer deaths.

The new study also showed that more than half of the benefits would come from fewer deaths from heart attacks, strokes and type 2 diabetes, as well as lung-cancer.

Greater ambition would yield even bigger health outcomes.

Dr Niki Paisi, who was part of the study team at the Climate and Atmosphere Research Center at the Cyprus Institute , said: “Of the excess deaths in Europe that are attributed to long-term exposure to particle pollution, 26% and 12% of these can be avoided if residential combustion and road-transport emissions are phased out, respectively. Countries like the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary and Poland could experience higher benefits from a phase-out, given that these two sectors contribute together to nearly 50% of the particle pollution mortality in these countries.”

These sectors are the focus of net zero strategies, so there are clearly opportunities from optimising our air pollution and climate policies for maximum health benefits.

And what about deaths from other sources of particle pollution?

Published in 2023, a study from Barcelona’s ISGlobal research institute sheds some light on this and can help national and especially city governments to understand which polluting sectors they should prioritise.

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Prof Mark Nieuwenhuijsen from ISGlobal explained: “Cities are still hotspots of air pollution and premature deaths. Urgent action is needed. This requires a holistic approach bringing together many different sectors including energy, transport, industry and agriculture.”

Nieuwenhuijsen’s team have produced an online tool that allows the public, city authorities and governments to interrogate the research database and to visualise the harm from the different pollution sources in their area.

Many of us in the UK and in countries bordering the North Sea may be surprised to see shipping listed as a substantial source of particle pollution. For large areas of north-west Europe, including much of the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, agriculture is one of the largest sources of early deaths from particle pollution, alongside transport and home heating. This receives little public and political attention, and solutions from farmers are rarely included in air pollution plans . Figures released by the UK government in mid-February highlight the need for more action with slow or no progress in reducing air pollution from farms and home heating with solid fuels.

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The impact of textile production and waste on the environment (infographics)

With fast fashion, the quantity of clothes produced and thrown away has boomed. Find out more about the environmental impact and what the EU is doing about it.

Fast fashion is the constant provision of new styles at very low prices.

To tackle the impact on the environment, the EU wants to reduce textile waste and increase the life cycle and recycling of textiles. This is part of the plan to achieve a circular economy by 2050 . Find out about the circular economy's definition, its importance and benefits

Infographic showing the environmental impact of textile consumption per person in the EU in 2022 (use of land, water, raw materials and carbon footprint)

Overconsumption of natural resources

It takes a lot of water to produce textile, plus land to grow cotton and other fibres. It is estimated that the global textile and clothing industry used 79 billion cubic metres of water in 2015, while the needs of the EU's whole economy amounted to 266 billion cubic metres in 2017 . To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water are required according to estimates, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years.

The textile sector was the third largest source of water degradation and land use in 2020 . In that year, it took on average nine cubic metres of water, 400 square metres of land and 391 kilogrammes (kg) of raw materials to provide clothes and shoes for each EU citizen.

Water pollution

Textile production is estimated to be responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and finishing products.

Laundering synthetic clothes accounts for 35% of primary microplastics released into the environment . A single laundry load of polyester clothes can discharge 700,000 microplastic fibres that can end up in the food chain.

The majority of microplastics from textiles are released during the first few washes. Fast fashion is based on mass production, low prices and high sales volumes that promotes many first washes.

Washing synthetic products has caused more than 14 million tonnes of microplastics to accumulate on the bottom of the oceans. In addition to this global problem, the pollution generated by garment production has a devastating impact on the health of local people, animals and ecosystems where the factories are located .

Greenhouse gas emissions

The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

According to the European Environment Agency, textile purchases in the EU in 2020 generated about 270 kg of CO2 emissions per person . That means textile products consumed in the EU generated greenhouse gas emissions of 121 million tonnes.

Textile waste in landfills and low recycling rates

The way people get rid of unwanted clothes has also changed, with items being thrown away rather than donated. Less than half of used clothes are collected for reuse or recycling, and only 1% of used clothes are recycled into new clothes, since technologies that would enable clothes to be recycled into virgin fibres are only now starting to emerge.

Between 2000 and 2015, clothing production doubled, while the average use of an item of clothing has decreased.

Europeans use nearly 26 kilos of textiles and discard about 11 kilos of them every year. Used clothes can be exported outside the EU, but are mostly (87%) incinerated or landfilled.

The rise of fast fashion has been crucial in the increase in consumption, driven partly by social media and the industry bringing fashion trends to more consumers at a faster pace than in the past.

The new strategies to tackle this issue include developing new business models for clothing rental, designing products in a way that would make re-use and recycling easier (circular fashion), convincing consumers to buy clothes of better quality that last longer (slow fashion) and generally steering consumer behaviour towards more sustainable options.

Infographic showing growth of textile production over the time (58 million tonnes in 2000, 109 million tonnes in 2020 and projection of 145 million tonnes by 2030)

Reducing textile waste in the EU: what are the solutions?

Work in progress: the eu strategy for sustainable and circular textiles.

As part of the circular economy action plan, the European Commission presented in March 2022 a new strategy to make textiles more durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable , tackle fast fashion and stimulate innovation within the sector.

The new strategy includes new ecodesign requirements for textiles, clearer information, a Digital Product Passport and calls companies to take responsibility and act to minimise their carbon and environmental footprints.

The EU must legally oblige manufacturers and large fashion companies to operate more sustainably. People and the planet are more important than the textile industry’s profits.

On 1 June 2023, MEPs set out proposals for tougher EU measures to halt the excessive production and consumption of textiles. Parliament’s report calls for textiles to be produced respecting human, social and labour rights, as well as the environment and animal welfare.

Existing EU measures to tackle textile waste

Under the waste directive approved by the Parliament in 2018, EU countries are obliged to collect textiles separately by 2025. The new Commission strategy also includes measures to, tackle the presence of hazardous chemicals, calls producers have to take responsibility for their products along the value chain, including when they become wasteand help consumers to choose sustainable textiles.

The EU has an EU Ecolabel that producers respecting ecological criteria can apply to items, ensuring a limited use of harmful substances and reduced water and air pollution.

The EU has also introduced some measures to mitigate the impact of textile waste on the environment. Horizon 2020 funds Resyntex , a project using chemical recycling, which could provide a circular economy business model for the textile industry.

A more sustainable model of textile production also has the potential to boost the economy. "Europe finds itself in an unprecedented health and economic crisis, revealing the fragility of our global supply chains," said lead MEP Jan Huitema (Renew, the Netherlands). "Stimulating new innovative business models will in turn create new economic growth and the job opportunities Europe will need to recover."

More about waste in the EU

  • Waste management in the EU: facts and figures
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  • E-waste in the EU: facts and figures (infographic)
  • The EU strategy to reduce plastic pollution

How to reduce packaging waste in the EU (infographics)

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  • Environmental impact of the textile and clothing industry

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The New Indian Express

Centre admitted AAP govt has managed to reduce air pollution in Delhi, claims AAP

N EW DELHI: AAP on Thursday said the central government in its Economic Survey Report 2022-23 admitted that the air quality in the capital has continuously improved, an achievement accomplished by the dedicated efforts of the city government.

Citing the report, AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said, “In the beginning of 2023, an Economic Survey Report 2022-23 was tabled in the Parliament, which said the air in Delhi has continuously improved since 2016. Seeing this report, a sense of optimism is generated that if there is political will and good intention, then air can be controlled, and air quality can also be improved,” she said.

Listing the contributions of the AAP-led government, Kakkar said, “The green cover of Delhi is at a historic high today. About 1,800 industries in Delhi have all been converted to PNG fuel, a clean fuel. Electricity is available round-the-clock for industrial, commercial, and residential purposes, due to which the use of polluting diesel-based generators has completely ended in Delhi.”

Mentioning the role of electric buses in bringing down air pollution in the city, Kakkar said CM Kejriwal has decided that the carbon dioxide emitted into the air by public transport should also be controlled, envisioning that by 2025, 80% of the buses in Delhi will be electric.

As of now, the total number of buses in Delhi is 7,582, which is the highest number till date. Of these, 1,650 are e-buses, i.e. about 22% of the total fleet has already become electric.

“When we started introducing electric buses in Delhi in 2022, the 47,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted by these buses was controlled as a part of the fleet transitioned to electric. A massive contribution has been made in controlling pollution through these electric buses,” she said.

The AAP spokesperson said the 1,650 e-buses in Delhi is not only the highest number of electric buses in the country but also third in the world.

“In view of this, a question arises that if CM Kejriwal has done so much in the war against pollution in such a short time, then why are other governments not capable of doing the same. Don’t they have political will, intention, determination?” she added.

‘22% of fleet comprised of e-buses’

As of now, the total number of buses in Delhi is 7,582, the highest number till date. Of these, 1,650 are e-buses, i.e. about 22% of the total fleet is comprised of e-buses. The 1,650 e-buses in the Delhi is the highest in the country and the third in the world, AAP asserted saying it has significantly reduced vehicular emissions, thus bringing down pollution.

Centre admitted AAP govt has managed to reduce air pollution in Delhi, claims AAP

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    How we can improve air quality 1. Reduce Your Contribution Manage waste - Minimize emissions from your waste-compost food and garden items, recycle non-organic trash if available, reuse grocery bags and dispose of remaining trash by local collection. Never burn trash as this contributes directly to air pollution.

  17. Air Pollution Threatens Millions of Lives. Now the Sources Are Shifting

    Particle-based ambient air pollution causes more than 4 million premature deaths each year globally, according to the World Health Organization. The tiniest particles—2.5 microns or smaller ...

  18. Billions of people still breathe unhealthy air: new WHO data

    The findings have prompted the World Health Organization to highlight the importance of curbing fossil fuel use and taking other tangible steps to reduce air pollution levels.Released in the lead-up to World Health Day, which this year celebrates the theme Our planet, our health, the 2022 update of the World Health Organization's air quality ...

  19. How are cities around the world tackling air pollution?

    The result has been a dramatic reduction in traffic jams, and less pollution. Curitiba. The southern Brazilian city of 2 million people has one of the biggest and lowest cost bus systems in the world.

  20. There's Only One Way to Fix Air Pollution Now

    But it gets a price tag in the world of economic models. ... the recession seemed to even reduce the ... Ultra-small air-pollution particles known as PM2.5—so named because they are 2.5 microns ...

  21. EU countries could save 238,000 lives a year by meeting WHO air

    A 20% decrease in air pollution from home heating would yield approximately 13,000 fewer deaths each year. East and central Europe would benefit most, due to high use of solid fuel for heating.

  22. The far-reaching impacts of wildfire smoke

    Exposure to air pollution is far from equal - despite how it might seem, we don't all breathe the same air. Often the most polluted areas in a city, for example, are in the poorest neighbourhoods.

  23. Five cities tackling air pollution

    Bogota is one of Latin America's leaders in reducing air pollution. The city is electrifying its public bus network and aims to completely electrify the metro system, part of an ambitious plan to reduce its air pollution by 10 per cent by 2024. Bogota's mayor, Claudia López Hernández, has also highlighted the importance of bikes.

  24. The impact of textile production and waste on the environment

    Water pollution. Textile production is estimated to be responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and finishing products. Laundering synthetic clothes accounts for 35% of primary microplastics released into the environment. A single laundry load of polyester clothes can discharge 700,000 microplastic fibres that can ...

  25. How air pollution is destroying our health

    Air pollution is closely linked to climate change - the main driver of climate change is fossil fuel combustion which is also a major contributor to air pollution - and efforts to mitigate one can improve the other.

  26. Centre admitted AAP govt has managed to reduce air pollution in ...

    The 1,650 e-buses in the Delhi is the highest in the country and the third in the world, AAP asserted saying it has significantly reduced vehicular emissions, thus bringing down pollution.

  27. These five cities are taking aim at air pollution

    Around the world, more than 90 per cent of people breathe in air that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers potentially harmful. While the source of air pollution varies - some come from vehicle emissions, some from power plants, some from crop burning - the outcome is the same: airborne contaminants are a dire threat to human health.