Polluted Air
According to a new World Health Organization research, almost no one on the planet is breathing clean air, prompting a plea to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia areas have the worst air quality, yet 99 percent of the world’s population breaths polluted air, including disease-causing particles. Africa has particularly low air quality.
“It is intolerable to have 7 million preventable deaths and countless preventable lost years of good health owing to air pollution after surviving a pandemic,” said Dr. Maria Neira, WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change, and Health.
“Too many investments are still being sunk into a polluted environment, rather than in clean, healthy air,” Neira said in a UN health agency news release.
Dangerous particles in the air can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause sickness by entering the veins and arteries. Transportation, power plants, agriculture, garbage burning, industry, and natural sources such as desert dust are all producers of particles.
