Murugesu was written by Jason Arunn.
A stock image of smoke and steam coming from an industrial plant.
Ian McKinnell is with Alamy.
An analysis shows that pollution killed 9 million people in 2019.
In 2015, the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution in Switzerland and their colleagues found that pollution caused 9 million deaths.
The team used data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study to find out how pollution-related deaths may have changed.
No one dies from pollution directly, but pollution causes a disease that kills them.
The number of deaths related to pollution is the same as in 2015. As many countries switched to cleaner fuels, the number of deaths caused by household air pollution fell.
There were 4.5 million deaths due to outdoor air pollution. Increasing numbers of cars and factories is the reason for this. Fine particulate matter with a maximum diameter of 2.5 micrometres is called PM 2.5. This has been linked to heart disease and some cancers.
It is unclear why lead pollution is rising. In 2015, the researchers estimated lead caused half a million deaths.
Most of the pollution deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.
Data from before the covid-19 pandemic is used in the latest analysis. In the UK, when there were lockdowns, fewer vehicles were on the roads, which alleviated symptoms for people with asthma. The effect on future pollution analyses is not known.
He hopes the results will lead to better pollution monitoring and awareness.
The number of global early deaths from exposure to pollution doesn't surprise me.
There is a journal reference to The Lancet Planetary Health.
There are more on these topics.
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