Ella Kissi-Debrah’s little body could take it no more. In 2013, the nine-year-old died after an acute asthma attack after living the whole of her short life 30 meters from London’s busy South Circular Road, with repeated visits to the hospital following frequent seizures.
The coroner pronounced in 2020 that the toxic fumes she had breathed because of the traffic on the roadway were partly to blame. It was the first known instance of the law recognizing air pollution as a cause of death.
Yet public health experts believe that Kissi-Debrah was a victim of a far more widespread global emergency. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that air pollution is responsible for more than seven million premature deaths every year around the world, contributing to pulmonary and heart diseases, lung cancer, and respiratory infections. Almost all of the world’s population—99 percent—breathes air that is dirtier than levels recommended by the WHO.
In August, research published in The Lancet journal by a team of Chinese scientists showed that air pollution increases antibiotic resistance, which – their calculations suggest – in turn led to 480,000 premature deaths and 18 million years lost globally in 2018.
The same month, Harvard scientists showed an association between pollutants in emissions from carbon combustion and an increased risk of some cancers.
So, just how dangerous is the air we breathe?
The short answer:
Very. In fact, air pollution, by some estimates, is a leading cause of death internationally. Carbon emissions are down, but wildfires are up, and the global hunger for energy continues to mount, posing new threats that do not affect everyone equally. Like with many other public health challenges, where people live and how much they earn determines the risks they face from toxic air.
Gas and particles
Airborne pollutants principally fall into two categories, said Sophie Gumy, a technical lead for the WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health: gases and particulate matter that are either produced directly from carbon combustion or through secondary mechanisms.
Nitrous oxides – a group of gases commonly produced by vehicles, fossil fuel-based power production, industrial refineries and chemical plants – are an example.
