WHO: 90 percent of world’s population breathe dirty air
Nine out of 10 people globally live in places with poor air quality, the World Health Organization has said, blaming a worldwide air pollution crisis for being a major factor in millions of deaths per year. In a new report released on September 27, the health agency said 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits. It also published an interactive map detailing the global “health emergency”. “Some three million deaths a year are linked to exposure to outdoor air pollution,” the UN body said in the report, which was based on data from 3,000 sites across the world. “Indoor air pollution can be just as deadly. In 2012, an estimated 6.5 million deaths (11.6 percent of all global deaths) were associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution together.”
