Air pollution kills 7 million a year, WHO toughens guidelines

Air pollution is estimated to cause seven million premature deaths and result in the loss of millions more healthy years of life. In children, this could include reduced lung growth and function, respiratory infections and aggravated asthma. Photo: AFP

The World Health Organization strengthened its air quality guidelines recently, saying air pollution was now one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, causing seven million premature deaths a year.

It said urgent action was needed to reduce exposure to air pollution, ranking its burden of disease on par with smoking and unhealthy eating.