Air pollution in the modern world is something that every responsible global citizen and business owner should be concerned with. Not only does air pollution affect natural environments which can have bearing on economic compliance levels, it also has a detrimental impact on the physical health of individuals in society.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nine out of ten people globally are breathing in air that contains high levels of pollutants with an estimated 7 million deaths annually. Positively, Dr Maria Neira (WHO’s Director of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health) noted “…an acceleration of political interest in this global public health challenge.”
Research indicates that the number of deaths as a result of outdoor air pollution increased from 3.4 million in 1990 to 4.2 million in 2016. It is apparent from the findings that the majority of pollution-related deaths are in Asia – South with Southeast and East Asia responsible for nearly 3 million deaths in 2016.
Ritchie and Roser explain that annual sulphur dioxide trends have risen and fallen in line with industrialisation by continent. They describe how industrialisation has had a heavy impact on the quality of air globally and unpack that historically (1960 to 1980), Europe and the Americas saw the heaviest emission records where from 1980 to 2010 emissions were increasing for Africa and Asia with Asia taking the lion’s share.
Eileen Shim published an article in 2014 explaining that carbon emissions were on the rise since 1971 with a consistent annual increase of 2%. Shim argues that China and the U.S. are to blame for nearly half of the world’s CO2 emissions.While there have been some positive steps taken to mitigate air pollution it is still a major issue of global concern. First Clean Air understands the negative impact of air pollution on the modern world and the pressures that your business experiences to meet compliance levels.