According to one report study published in the Lancet Planetary Health journalil 99% of the Earth’s population is exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollutants known as PM 2.5, i.e. fine powders with dimensions less than or equal to 2.5 microns.
“Hardly anyone is safe from air pollution“said Yuming Guo, the study’s lead author and a professor at Monash University.”The surprising finding is that nearly all parts of the world have mean annual PM 2.5 concentrations above the air quality guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.“
These tiny pollutants, one-thirtieth the size of a human hair, can travel in our lungs and bloodstream e are considered the most dangerous. Scientists assessed the concentration of these particles worldwide from 2000 to 2019. Overall, the highest concentrations could be found in East Asia, South Asia and Northern Africa.
In 2019, just think, just 0.001% of the world‘s population was exposed to levels of PM2.5 pollution that the World Health Organization deems safe. Not only that: the study found that worldwide 70% of days in a year exceeded recommended levels. However, Guo himself said that the WHO’s recommended threshold for concentrations of these fine particles is “questionable”.
In 2021, WHO has cut the acceptable limits in half to promote better efforts to reduce air pollution and protect populations; even using the previous WHO threshold, however, Guo and his colleagues found that only 1.8% of the world‘s population in 2019 was exposed to less than recommended levels.
“There is no safe level of air pollution“, said Neelu Tummala, a doctor who was not involved in the study, and who has called the latest WHO recommendations “aggressive”ma “it also highlights how important it is to lower our air pollution levels due to so many health impacts associated with air pollution.“