Identifying the silent killer that kills 9 million people each year

Pollution killed 9 million people in 2015, three times more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and nearly 15 times more than war and other forms of violence.

RT news agency reported that the alarming figure was given in a report on October 19 by the Lancet Pollution and Health Council, an international organization with more than 40 authors writing about health and the environment.

Illustration photo: Reuters

Pollution is responsible for one in six deaths worldwide, the report said. The share is unevenly distributed, with 92% occurring in “low- and middle-income countries.” India was the top cause of pollution-related deaths, with 2.5 million deaths, followed by China, with 1.8 million deaths in 2015.

The Lancet report identifies air pollution itself, mainly caused by the burning of various fuels, as the worst killer. It causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases such as lung cancer, which can develop from long-term exposure to polluted air.

"With globalization, mining and manufacturing are shifting to poorer countries where environmental laws and regulations are less stringent," Reuters quoted Karti Sandilya, a writer and adviser to the environmental group Pure Earth.

“People in these countries – like construction workers in New Delhi, India – will be exposed to more polluted air and have less protection when they walk, drive or take buses to work, which may also be polluted.”

The cost of pollution is not only measured in human lives and health. It is also estimated in monetary terms, with welfare losses of around $4.6 trillion per year, or 6.2% of global economic output.

According to VNN