Just seven countries met World Health Organization guidelines for air pollution last year, as continued reliance on fossil fuels and climate change repercussions continue to dog human health, according to a report published Tuesday by IQAir, a Swiss air quality-monitoring company.
Bangladesh, Pakistan and India had the most polluted air, with levels of particle pollution at least 10 times what the World Health Organization suggests, the company said. More than 92% of the countries and regions analyzed exceeded guidelines for particulate pollution, including the U.S.
Canada was the most polluted country in North America largely because of its record-setting wildfire season, when more than 45 million acres burned. Canadian wildfire smoke reduced U.S. air quality and helped cause the country to experience an overall increase in particle pollution from 2022 to 2023, according to the report.
The analysis shows how air pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels is combining with other factors, like wildfires influenced by climate change, to stress human health worldwide. While some regions, such as western Europe, are seeing pollution improve as their economies electrify, others are seeing measures of air quality backslide. It’s a global problem even for countries reducing emissions because air pollution doesn’t stay within national borders, the report authors wrote.
The report is based on information from more than 30,000 air quality monitors in 134 countries and territories, according to IQAir. The company analyzed the average level of pollution throughout the year in cities with monitoring equipment and tallied people’s exposure to particulate matter that are roughly 2.5 microns in size.
Measures of pm2.5, as scientists call it, are important indicators for pollution effects on human health.
“Pm2.5 penetrates every cell of our bodies — from cells deep in the skin to cells in lungs and our brain,” IQAir Global CEO Frank Hammes said at a news…
Read the full article here
