WHO report: 7 million died as a result of indoor air pollution

Air pollution was responsible for the deaths of 7 million people in 2012.

According to a new report out from the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is responsible for a large amount of deaths across the globe each year. In 2012, the latest numbers that the WHO has available, air pollution killed 7 million people prematurely, which comes out to one in eight citizens in the international community. The reason for this rise in deaths is due to one specific, and dangerous, cause: Indoor cooking.

According to the WHO and United Nations (UN), indoor cooking is now the “single largest environmental health risk” to everybody in the world. What has the health organization troubled is that the 7 million people who were killed as a result of this air pollution is nearly double the amount that had been initially projected. The UN noted in a response to the WHO report that the common use of cooking indoors with coal and wood has lead to widespread diseases caused by pollutants that are released into the air.

According to the report, these health conditions include heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This data now more strongly links both indoor and outdoor pollution to problems with the cardiovascular system. The report says that there is no greater threat to our collective health than indoor air pollution, and there needs to be a concerted effort to clean up the air we breathe to ensure that more people do not succumb to these diseases.

If you want to improve the indoor air quality of your home or workplace, be sure to invest in an air purifier from US Air Purifiers Direct 2U! Our products will help keep the air around you clean, allowing for easier breathing.