Air pollution could kill 6.6 million people a year by 2050

LONDON (Reuters) - Air contaminated with pollutants such as ozone and tiny particles could cause the premature death of about 6.6 million people a year by 2050 if nothing is done to improve air quality, scientists warned on Wednesday.
In a study published in the journal Nature, they found that outdoor air pollution already kills about 3.3 million people a year worldwide. The majority of those deaths are in Asia where residential energy emissions, such as those from heating and cooking, have a major impact.

And that toll could double over the next 35 years, the researchers warned, unless clean-up measures are taken.

“This is an astounding number,” said Jos Lelieveld of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, who led the research. “In some counties air pollution is actually a leading cause of death, and in many countries it is a major issue.”

Air pollution deaths are most commonly from heart disease, strokes or a lung disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It is also linked to deaths from lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.