Pollution caused nearly 9 million deaths in 2019, or about one in six deaths worldwide. That number was effectively unchanged since the last such analysis in 2015 by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, according to a report published Wednesday in The Lancet Planetary Health.
Although the number of deaths from sources of pollution associated with extreme poverty (such as indoor air pollution and water pollution) has decreased, these reductions are offset by an increase in deaths from poverty. industrial pollution (such as ambient air pollution and chemical pollution).
“The health effects remain enormous, and low- and middle-income countries are bearing the brunt”, summarizes the main author and co-director of the commission, Richard Fuller. They account for 92% of these deaths and most of the resulting economic losses.
“Attention and funding have increased only marginally since 2015, despite a well-documented rise in public concern about pollution and its health effects”he added.
The 2017 Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health uses data from the 2015 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, which found that pollution was responsible for around nine million deaths, or 16% of all deaths in the world. The new report provides updated estimates of the health effects of pollution based on the most recent 2019 GBD data and methodological updates available, as well as an assessment of trends since 2000.
Of the 9 million deaths attributable to pollution in 2019, air pollution (both household and ambient) remains responsible for the highest number of deaths with 6.67 million worldwide.
Water pollution is responsible for 1.36 million premature deaths. Lead contributed to 900,000 premature deaths, followed by toxic occupational hazards with 870,000 deaths.
Excess deaths from pollution resulted in economic losses totaling $4.6 trillion in 2019, or 6.2% of global economic output.
The authors of the new study conclude with eight recommendations that build on those of the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health.
These include calls for the creation of an independent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)-style scientific/policy panel on pollution, as well as increased funding for the fight against pollution from governments, independent and philanthropic donors, and improved pollution monitoring and data collection.
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