World wide, Nearly everyone is exposed to unhealthy levels of tiny air pollutants, study says

Nearly everyone is exposed to unhealthy levels of tiny air pollutants, study says “Almost no one is safe from air pollution,” Yuming Guo, the lead author of the study, told The Washington Post. Kasha Patel Washington Post

Nearly everyone — 99 percent of the global population — is exposed to unhealthy levels of tiny and harmful air pollutants, known as PM 2.5, according a new study released Monday in Lancet Planetary Health. The findings underline a growing urgency for policymakers, public health officials and researchers to focus on curbing major sources of air pollution, such as emissions from power plants, industrial facilities and vehicles.

“Almost no one is safe from air pollution,” Yuming Guo, the lead author of the study and professor at Monash University, said in an email. “The surprising result is that almost all parts of the world have annual average PM 2.5 concentrations higher than air quality guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.”

Nearly 7 million people worldwide died because of air pollution in 2019, according to recent estimates. What’s known as PM 2.5, small air particles that measure 2.5 microns or less in width, ranks as one of the most concerning toxic air pollutants for human health. The tiny pollutants — one-thirtieth the width of a human hair — can travel into our lungs and bloodstream. They can cause ailments including heart disease or lung cancer.

Guo and his colleagues assessed daily and annual PM 2.5 concentrations across the globe from 2000 to 2019 using a computer model, which incorporated traditional air quality observations from ground stations, chemical transport model simulations and meteorological data. Overall, the highest concentrations were located in eastern Asia, southern Asia and northern Africa.

The WHO’s recommended threshold for PM 2.5 concentrations is “arguable,” Guo said in a press release. In 2021, the WHO cut the acceptable limits of PM 2.5 by half to help drive better efforts to lower air pollution and protect populations. The revised guideline is stricter than those of other regulatory bodies such the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which currently sets its annual health-based standard to 12 micrograms per cubic meter but could lower it to the range of 9 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter in the next revision.

However, even using the WHO’s previous threshold (10 micrograms per cubic meter), Guo and his colleagues found still only 1.8 percent of the global population in 2019 was exposed to an amount below recommended levels. Many scientists say even lower concentrations of air pollution can have health impacts that people can feel.

“There is no safe level of air pollution,” said Neelu Tummala, an ear, nose and throat physician who was not involved in the study. She called the latest WHO recommendations “aggressive,” but said the change “also highlights just how important it is to get our air pollution levels lower because of so many health impacts that are associated with air pollution.”

Over the past two decades, pollution exposure increased in southern Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and the Caribbean, the study found. Meanwhile, exposure to fine particulate matter decreased in Europe and northern America. Tummala said that may be in part due to legislation and concerted efforts aimed at decreasing air pollution.

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