Breathing dirty air as a child shortens life by 20 months

Inhaling dirty air as a child shortens life by about a year and eight months. This is reported by The Guardian, citing two new reports from State of Global Air.

According to reports, newborns from some of the least environmentally friendly countries, if the situation does not change, on average will live three years less than their peers from “clean” regions.

Air pollution was ranked the fourth leading cause of death globally in 2019, accounting for about 7 million early deaths, according to the organization. That’s more than the most common risks, including smoking, malaria and poor hygiene.

Leadership in the international air pollution anti-rating is currently held by the cities of India. They contain more than 20 times the particulate matter level of the World Health Organization.

Earlier, UN rapporteur David Boyd said that environmental pollution killed almost 9 million people on the planet. This is twice as many as the number of deaths from the coronavirus. According to him, 750 thousand people die every year from exposure to exhaust gases and other toxic substances. Pollution and toxic substances are the main factors in the catastrophic reduction of biodiversity on Earth and cause environmental crises, the report emphasizes.

According to Rosprirodnadzor, the Krasnoyarsk Territory has become the anti-leader in terms of ecology in Russia. The total amount of emissions into the atmosphere in the region is 1.8 million tons per year (11% of emissions in Russia) or 30,000 wagons. The second place in terms of emissions is occupied by the city of Cherepovets in the Vologda region, and Novokuznetsk in the Kemerovo region closes the top three.