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• A recent study, The Lancet Planetary Health by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health reflects that air pollution caused nearly nine million deaths in 2019, or about one in six deaths worldwide.

Key highlights of the report

• The health impacts of pollution remain enormous and low- and middle-income countries bear the brunt of this burden.
• The 2017 Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, using data from the 2015 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, found that pollution was responsible for an estimated nine million deaths – 16% of all deaths globally.
• Water pollution was responsible for 1.36 million premature deaths. Lead contributed to 900,000 premature deaths, followed by toxic occupational hazards at 870,000 deaths.
• The decline in deaths from traditional pollution since 2000 (household air pollution from solid fuels and unsafe water) is most evident in Africa.
  • This can be explained by improvements in water supply and sanitation, antibiotics and treatments, and cleaner fuels.
• Ambient air pollution was responsible for 4.5 million deaths in 2019, up from 4.2 million deaths in 2015 and 2.9 million in 2000.
• Deaths from hazardous chemical pollutants increased from 0.9 million in 2000 to 1.7 million in 2015, to 1.8 million in 2019, with 900,000 deaths attributable to lead pollution in 2019.
• Overall, deaths from modern pollution have increased by 66 per cent in the past two decades, from an estimated 3.8 million deaths in 2000 to 6.3 million deaths in 2019.
• Excess deaths due to pollution have led to economic losses totalling US$ 4∙6 trillion in 2019, equating to 6∙2% of global economic output.

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