Air pollution becomes world’s biggest environmental health risk

KARACHI - The air pollution impacts on mortality and health are a significant public health issue worldwide. The population-based studies have documented health risks resulting from short term exposure to air pollutants.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that air pollution has become the world’s single biggest environmental health risk, linked to around seven million humans, nearly one in eight deaths in 2012.

Around 80 percent of the 3.7 million deaths from outdoor air pollution came due to stroke and heart disease, 11 percent from lung diseases, six percent from cancers...