The WHO lowered the tolerated limits for pollutants considered classic: particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. The new rules are not mandatory, but they do give countries a framework to better protect their populations.
The WHO estimates that air pollution and that of certain enclosed spaces cause seven million premature deaths annually, due to non-communicable diseases.
Environmental threat
“Air pollution is a threat to health in all countries, but it especially hits the populations of countries with scarce resources”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
In these countries, there are increasing levels of air pollution driven by large-scale urbanization and economic development that relies mainly on the use of fossil fuels.
For Hans Henri Kluge, WHO Director for Europe, “clean air should be a fundamental human right and a necessary condition for the health and productivity of societies.”
“However, although air quality has improved somewhat over the past three decades, millions of people continue to die prematurely, often in more vulnerable or marginalized populations,” he lamented in the statement.
And with climate change, air pollution is, according to the WHO, one of the main environmental threats to health.