Nearly Entire Planet Breathing Polluted Air
The vast majority of the world's people breathe dangerously polluted air, an analysis compiled by the Swiss firm IQAir reveals. Of the 134 nations for which sufficient data were available, just 10 countries — mostly islands, Australia, and Finland and Estonia — met the World Health Organization's standards of less than 5 micrograms of fine particulate pollution (known as PM2.5) per cubic meter of air. Most of the worst polluted countries were in Asia. PM2.5 pollution leads to millions of premature deaths every year, more than any other type of pollution. The US EPA recently proposed strengthening its standard from 12 to nine micrograms per cubic meter. “Air pollution and climate change both have the same culprit, which is fossil fuels,” Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir’s North American division, told the New York Times. (New York Times $, CNN, The Guardian, Reuters, Bloomberg $, CBC, Indian Express)
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