Air Pollution and Health: Understanding the Connection

Air pollution has become an increasingly huge problem faced by many countries around the world. This problem isn’t new, our world has been greatly affected by this predicament for years and it doesn’t show signs of abating. According to Our World in Data, CO2 emissions have increased from 6 billion tonnes in 1950 to a staggering 37.8 billion tonnes in 2023. Furthermore, The 2024 World Air Quality report stated that about 91% out of 138 evaluated countries violated the PM2.5, particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, standard. Chad was one of the worst offenders with an average annual PM2.5 concentration of around 91,8 µg/m³ in 2024. To put things into perspective, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that an annual PM2.5 level as low as 5 µg/m³ can potentially lead to adverse health effects, and Chad has surpassed that limit exorbitantly. Additionally, air quality is also commonly measured by the air quality index (AQI) which is categorized into good (0-50), moderate (51-100), unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150), unhealthy (151-200), very unhealthy (201-300), and hazardous (301). Only an air quality index of below 100 is considered acceptable for the general public’s health. Nevertheless, even being grouped in the moderate category may already carry a few risks for individuals really susceptible to air pollution.

Violating those regulations doesn't just cause minor problems. In fact, from the 60 million people who have passed until the year 2021, air pollution was one the top three leading causes of death, accounting for approximately 8.1 million lives lost. Specifically, around 100 out of 100,000 people are estimated to have died due to air pollution, with 58 of those 100 deaths being caused by outdoor particulate matter, 39 of them resulted from indoor pollution, and the remaining deaths caused by ozone pollution.