Science

WHO: 90 Percent of World Population Is Inhaling Hazardous Pollutants

ALARMING

Seven million people die annually as a result of pollution, according to a new study.

180501-who-air-pollution-deaths-cheat_by0j2j
Jason Lee/Reuters

Seven million people die each year as a result of air pollution, and more than 90 percent of the global population is currently breathing in dangerous levels of pollutants, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday. “Air pollution threatens us all, but the poorest and most marginalized people bear the brunt of the burden,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. The figures come from a new study that examined hazardous levels of pollutants in both outside and household air. The majority of pollution-related deaths occur in low- or middle-income countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, according to the study.

Read it at Agence France-Presse