Air pollution causing 3.5 million deaths in the World each year - OECD Report
Wed 21 May 2014
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The world's largest economies are spending triillions of pounds to tackle poor air quality, with road transport pollution one of the most significant contributors, according to new research from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Air pollution kills more than 3.5 million people a year globally, far more than was previously estimated. However, air pollution was implicated in fewer deaths in the UK in 2010 than five years earlier.
Road transport is the biggest source of the pollution which causes poor air quality, accounting for an estimated 50 per cent of air pollution costs, according to new research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) entitled 'The Cost of Air Pollution: Health Impacts of Road Transport'.
Air pollution causes deaths and health problems from heart disease to asthma and other respiratory difficulties.
Of the 24 EU countries included in the study, road transport comprised half of the pollution costs for all of them. The OECD has estimated that people in its 34 Member countries would be willing to pay US$1.7 trillion to avoid deaths caused by air pollution.
The WHO research says that just over 28,000 deaths in the UK were linked to air pollution in 2005, compared with just over 24,000 in 2010 suggesting progress has been made. In general, the problem has worsened in rapidly growing economies like China and India over the same period.
The OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria said: “The price we pay to drive doesn’t reflect the impact of driving on the environment and on people’s health. Tackling air pollution requires collective action."
Air pollution in OECD countries has fallen in recent years, helped by tighter emission controls on vehicles. However, it has increased in the growing economies of China and India as rapid growth in traffic has outpaced the adoption of tighter emission limits. In China, the total cost of outdoor air pollution was an estimated $1.4 trillion in 2010. In India, the OECD calculated the toll at $500 billion. The switch to more polluting diesel vehicles in many countries threatens to undermine the downward trend in emissions from road transport in OECD countries.
While premature deaths from air pollution in OECD countries dropped between 2005 and 2010, the global death rate rose by 4 percent, largely due to a 5 percent increase in pollution-related deaths in China and a 12 percent increase in India. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 3.5 million people die each year from outdoor air pollution.
Toxic air emissions are now the biggest environmental cause of premature death, overtaking poor sanitation and lack of clean drinking water.
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