Indoor air pollution is caused by burning solid fuel sources – such as firewood, crop waste, and dung – for cooking and heating.
The burning of such fuels, particularly in poor households, results in air pollution that leads to respiratory diseases which can result in premature death. The WHO calls indoor air pollution “the world’s largest single environmental health risk.”
Indoor air pollution is one of the leading risk factors for premature death
Indoor air pollution is a leading risk factor for premature death in poor countries
Indoor air pollution is one of the world’s largest environmental problems – particularly for the poorest in the world who often do not have access to clean fuels for cooking.
The Global Burden of Disease is a major global study on the causes and risk factors for death and disease published in the medical journal The Lancet.2 These estimates of the annual number of deaths attributed to a wide range of risk factors are shown here. This chart is shown for the global total, but can be explored for any country or region using the “change country” toggle.
Indoor air pollution is a risk factor for several of the world’s leading causes of death, including heart disease, pneumonia, stroke, diabetes and lung cancer.3 In the chart we see that it is one of the leading risk factors for death globally.
According to the Global Burden of Disease study 2313991 deaths were attributed to indoor pollution in the latest year.
Because the IHME data is more recent we rely mostly on IHME data in our work on indoor air pollution. But it’s worth noting that the WHO publishes a substantially larger number of indoor air pollution deaths. In 2018 (the latest available data) the WHO estimated 3.8 million deaths.4
The health impact of indoor air pollution is especially high in low-income countries. If we look at the breakdown for countries with a low sociodemographic index – ‘Low SDI’ on the interactive chart – we see that indoor air pollution is among the worst risk factors.
The global distribution of deaths from indoor air pollution
4.1% of global deaths are attributed to indoor air pollution
Indoor air pollution was attributed to an estimated 2313991 deaths in the latest year. This means that indoor air pollution was responsible for 4.1% of global deaths.
In the map here we see the share of annual deaths attributed to indoor air pollution across the world.
When we compare the share of deaths attributed to indoor air pollution either over time or between countries, we are not only comparing the extent of indoor air pollution, but its severity in the context of other risk factors for death. Indoor air pollution’s share does not only depend on how many die prematurely from it, but what else people are dying from and how this is changing.
When we look at the share dying from indoor air pollution, figures are high across the lowest-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, but not markedly different from countries across Asia or Latin America. There, the severity of indoor air pollution – expressed as the share of deaths – has been masked by the role of other risk factors at low-incomes, such as low access to safe water, poor sanitation and unsafe sex which is a risk factor for HIV/AIDS.
Death rates are highest across low income countries
Death rates from indoor air pollution give us an accurate comparison of differences in its mortality impacts between countries and over time. In contrast to the share of deaths that we studied before, death rates are not influenced by how other causes or risk factors for death are changing.
In this map we see death rates from indoor air pollution across the world. Death rates measure the number of deaths per 100,000 people in a given country or region.
What becomes clear is the large differences in death rates between countries: rates are high in lower-income countries, particularly across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Compare these rates with those across high-income countries: across North America rates are below 0.1 deaths per 100,000. That’s a greater than 1000-fold difference.
The issue of indoor air pollution therefore has a clear economic split: it is a problem that has almost been entirely eliminated across high-income countries, but remains a large environmental and health problem at lower incomes.
We see this relationship clearly when we plot death rates versus income, as shown here. There is a strong negative relationship: death rates decline as countries get richer. This is also true when make this comparison between extreme poverty rates and pollution effects.
How has mortality from indoor air pollution changed over time?
Annual deaths from indoor air pollution have declined globally
Whilst indoor air pollution is still one of the leading risk factors for mortality, and the largest risk factor at low incomes, the world has also made significant progress in recent decades.
Globally, the number of annual deaths from indoor air pollution has fallen substantially since 1990. We see this in the visualization, which shows the annual number of deaths attributed to indoor air pollution globally.
This means that despite continued population growth in recent decades, the total number of deaths from indoor air pollution has still declined.
Come from https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution
Post time: Nov-10-2022