A report from the World Health Organization (the World Heath Statistics of 2017) stated that people in the UK are 64 times more likely to die of air pollution as those in Sweden and twice as likely as those in the US.
This study, conduced by the WHO, says that reducing the number of deaths all around the world is a key target. In fact, every year almost 3 million people worldwide see their life expectancy reduced because the air is dirty and polluted.
WHO said to The Guardian: “Some 72% of outdoor air pollution-related premature deaths were due to ischaemic heart disease and strokes, while 14% of deaths were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or acute lower respiratory infections, and 14% of deaths were due to lung cancer”.
Worldwide the worst countries for polluted air are India (113 deaths every 100,000 people are because of pollution) and Myanmar (which rate is 230 deaths).
Nevertheless “we are in the fortunate position of having the technology and resources to fix this problem. The next government needs to bring in a new Clean Air Act to protect the nation’s lung health” concluded WHO.
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