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This list contains the top 500 cities by PM2.5 annual mean concentration measurement as documented by the World Health Organization covering the period from 2010 to 2022. The January 2024 version of the WHO database contains results of ambient (outdoor) air pollution monitoring from almost 5,390 towns and cities in 63 countries.
Air pollution can occur naturally or be caused by human activities. [4] Air pollution causes around 7 or 8 million deaths each year. [5] [6] It is a significant risk factor for a number of pollution-related diseases, including heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and lung cancer.
Air pollution is among the biggest health problems of modern industrial society and is responsible for more than 10 percent of all deaths worldwide (nearly 4.5 million premature deaths in 2019), according to The Lancet. Air pollution can affect nearly every organ and system of the body, negatively affecting nature and humans alike.
Looking down from the Hollywood Hills, with Griffith Observatory on the hill in the foreground, air pollution is visible in downtown Los Angeles on a late afternoon.. Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials into the atmosphere that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damage ecosystems.
Air pollution is caused predominantly by burning fossil fuels, cars, and much more. [4] Natural sources of air pollution include forest fires, volcanic eruptions, wind erosion, pollen dispersal, evaporation of organic compounds, and natural radioactivity. These natural sources of pollution often soon disperse and thin settling near their locale.
Diseases caused by pollution, lead to the chronic illness and deaths of about 8.4 million people each year. However, pollution receives a fraction of the interest from the global community. [1] This is in part because pollution causes so many diseases that it is often difficult to draw a straight line between cause and effect.
Air pollution is associated with adverse health effects like respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, related illnesses, and even death. [35] The risk of air pollution is determined by the pollutant's hazard and the amount of exposure that affects a person. [36]
Overall, air pollution causes the deaths of around ca. 7 million people worldwide each year, and is the world's largest single environmental health risk, according to the WHO (2012) and the IEA (2016). [33] [34] [35]