‘A Planetary Threat’: Pollution Responsible For 9 Million Deaths Each Year, Study Finds

Topline

Pollution was responsible for more than 9 million deaths around the world in 2019, according to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health on Tuesday, equivalent to one in every six, a growing global problem researchers warn poses an “existential threat” to humanity but receives little political attention or funding to mitigate the crisis.

Steam rises from the Miller coal Power Plant in Adamsville, Alabama on April 11, 2021.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Air pollution, for example from burning fossil fuels, accounted for the vast majority of these, nearly 75%, and was responsible for 6.67 million deaths, the peer-reviewed analysis of global mortality data found, contributing towards higher rates of issues like cancer, heart disease and respiratory illness.

Water pollution and toxic chemicals like lead were also responsible for millions of deaths, the researchers said, 1.36 million and 1.8 million deaths, respectively, leading to issues like sickness from unsafe drinking water, damage to the immune system and hindering brain development in children.

The number of deaths due to toxic chemicals such as pesticides, arsenic, mercury and cadmium, which can contaminate food, water and a litany of commercial products—the researchers said toxic metals found in baby foods and turmeric contaminated by lead in Bangladesh and very likely elsewhere were of particular concern—has increased by 66% since 2000.

This figure is most likely an underestimate, the researchers warned, as only a small number of the thousands of manufactured chemicals used commercially have been adequately tested.

While the overall number of deaths attributable to pollution was the same in 2019 as it was in 2015, fewer people are now dying after exposure to more traditional sources of pollution like unsafe water and household pollution from solid fuels, the researchers said, largely attributable to improvements in sanitation, access to medicine and cleaner fuels.

This reduction was offset by an increase in deaths following exposure to more modern pollutants including traffic air pollution, toxic chemicals like pesticides, certain flame retardants and pharmaceuticals and chemicals leaching into the soil from electronic waste and batteries, the researchers said.

Crucial Quote

“Pollution is still the largest existential threat to human and planetary health and jeopardizes the sustainability of modern societies,” said study co-author Professor Philip Landrigan. While pollution has typically been viewed as a local or sometimes regional problem in high income areas, it’s “clear that pollution is a planetary threat” that is closely linked to climate change and biodiversity loss, added Rachael Kupka, another co-author and Executive Director of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. “Global action on all major modern pollutants is needed,” Kupka stressed.

Big Number

$ 4.6 trillion. That’s the total economic loss pollution was responsible for in 2019, the researchers estimate, around 6.2% of global economic output. This burden, as well as the number of deaths, is not distributed evenly around the world. Low- and middle-income countries pay a much heavier toll, accounting for 92% of pollution-related deaths, the researchers said.

Key Background

Pollution is by far the largest environmental threat to human health and wellbeing. Studies consistently reveal that it plays a major role in precipitating or exacerbating health issues including severe mental health problems, premature birth, lower cognitive intelligence, skin ailments, diabetes and a wide variety of cancers, heart disease and respiratory illnesses. Despite the burden—pollution would have ranked as the world’s leading cause of death in 2019 if counted as an independent cause of death—it attracts relatively little global funding or attention, especially compared to the climate crisis. There has been “strikingly little effort in most countries” to act on recommendations suggesting tackling pollution be prioritized, the researchers said, with only a minimal increase in funding since 2015.

Surprising Fact

Not a single one of the world’s 100 biggest cities managed to meet WHO air pollution guidelines.

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