A smokestack in Spain. Outdoor air pollution has a substantial impact on health, mainly from breathing pollutants and small particulate matter (often referred to as PM2.5) that travel deep into the lungs. These invisible, harmful particles can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease and lung cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) has associated about 4.2 million premature deaths per year with health issues related to air pollution. According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) outdoor air pollution is related to more deaths than unsafe sex leading to HIV/AIDs, unsafe water or malaria. Annual air pollution-related diseases also have a much higher death toll than COVID-19 to date. Unlike COVID-19, however, children are susceptible with strong evidence showing that exposure is damaging to unborn children, affecting the number of pre-term births, childhood asthma, neurodevelopment, lung function and more. However, most people dying early due to exposure to PM2.5 are older. Low-income communities also are disproportionately affected as they are much more likely to be living in areas of high air pollution, leading to poor health with less access to quality healthcare. Tackling air quality will not just save lives but also can inject urgency into the climate change agenda. The causes of climate change are often the same as air pollution: transport; power sector; and industrial emissions. Capitalizing on the growing public and political awareness of the health impacts of air pollution, we can accelerate climate action and improve public health. Over the last months, some studies have indicated certain positive short-term effects on air quality following the strict lockdown measures when comparing the same period year on year in major cities. For example, there was a 25 percent reduction in PM in New York City, 32 percent in São Paulo, 60 percent in Delhi and 54 percent in Seoul. However, as economies restart and lockdown... |