Air Pollution Kills 6.5 Million People Every Year, And It Could Get Worse Unless We Act Now

[Stuart G]

Source: Huffington Post

Exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution is linked to the premature deaths of about 6.5 million people every year, according to new International Energy Agency cautionary report this week. That makes it the fourth-largest threat to human health after high blood pressure, dietary risks and smoking.

And the number of deaths attributed to poor air quality is set to only rise in the coming decades, said the Paris-based energy security group — unless swift international action is taken to tackle this crisis.

“Clean air is vital for good health. Yet despite growing recognition of this imperative, the problem of air pollution is far from solved in many countries, and the global health impacts risk intensifying in the decades to come,” the report said.

The IEA warned that while premature deaths due to household air pollution should fall to 2.9 million a year from 3.5 million by 2040, outdoor air pollution-related deaths could rise from 3 million to 4.5 million annually in that time.

Asia will account for almost 90 percent of this increase, the report said.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/air-pollution-deaths-iea-report_us_57762af9e4b0a629c1a97b55?section=

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In my opinion, poor air quality kills ten times that amount. Why? Because so many deaths are not reported as caused by the bad air, but over the long haul, complications of dirty air affect heart disease and lung disease. It gets reported as something else, but some of the cause happened because of lax air rules years ago. Also....here is a link to current dirty air in the U.S.A.....When you hit the link below, please hit a box marked "Current AQI" A new set of numbers will appear that tell you where the worst air in the U.S. is right now..Current AQI ..stands for Current Air Quality Index which is explained at the site...This site if funded by the United States federal government to inform people about dirty air, what it is, where it is, and how it is created and moves around ..

https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.main

[Locrian]

1. influences a lot of things

http://time.com/4233241/air-pollution-obesity-diabetes/

Researchers from Duke University exposed lab rats either to Beijing air or filtered air for 19 days; at the end, the group that got the highly polluted Beijing air had higher bad cholesterol levels (50%), triglycerides (46%) and total cholesterol (97%), factors that can affect the risk of developing obesity and diabetes, United Press International reports. Male rats exposed to pollution ended the study 18% heavier than their filtered air counterparts, and female rats ended the study 10% heavier.

If the same metabolic dysfunction were confirmed to occur in humans, one of the study’s authors said in a press release, “these findings will support the urgent need to reduce air pollution, given the growing burden of obesity in today’s highly polluted world.”

[Akicita]

2. Thanks for the neat link.

[FixTheProblem]

3. "Could" get worse.... Good lord...

There really is no hope, I think. Even when the oceans turn septic, there will be someone saying "things will get worse IF WE DON"T DO SOMETHING NOW!"

We had 150 years to do "something now," and we sat around with our thumbs up our asses. Our species, as well as 99.9% of life on this planet, ARE FUCKED.