UBC Study Shows Pollution Kills Millions of People a Year

Air pollution is the reason more than five million people die a year.

Research completed by the University of British Columbia (UBC) said that more than 5.5 million people die every year from household and outdoor air pollution.

The research was presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the key point was that these premature deaths will continue to happen unless more aggressive targets are set.

Despite the efforts to limit future emissions, power plants, industrial manufacturing, vehicle exhaust, and burning coal and wool continue to release small particles into the air that are dangerous to humans.

"Air pollution is the fourth highest risk factor for death globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease," said Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia's School of Population and Public Health in Vancouver.

"Reducing air pollution is an incredibly efficient way to improve the health of a population."

More than half of these deaths occur in China and India, which are two of the world’s fastest growing economies. It’s estimated that 1.6 million people died of air pollution in China and 1.4 million died in India, just in 2013.

"Our study highlights the urgent need for even more aggressive strategies to reduce emissions from coal and from other sectors," said Qiao Ma, a PhD student at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

In India millions of families are exposed to burning wood, dung, or similar sources of biomass for cooking and heating. These families, often the poorest in India are exposed to high levels of particulate matter.

"India needs a three-pronged mitigation approach to address industrial coal burning, open burning for agriculture, and household air pollution sources," said Chandra Venkataraman, professor of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in Mumbai, India.

Even though in the last 50 years North America, Western Europe, and Japan have worked on combatting pollution more needs to be done UBC said that way no more innocent people have to die.