If you don’t want to breathe in cigarette smoke, it’s easy to step away from the smoker or ask them to snuff it out.
But if you don’t want to breathe polluted air, it’s a little harder to get away. A recent study from the World Health Organization found that 92 percent of the world lives in places where air quality does not meet standards. The organization said air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health.
“Air pollution continues to rise at an alarming rate, and affects economies and people’s quality of life; it is a public health emergency,” WHO said in its latest assessment of ambient air pollution. “Air pollution affects practically all countries in the world and all parts of society.”
Outdoor air pollution is estimated to have caused 3 million premature deaths in 2012, including from respiratory diseases and cancers. Residents of low- and middle-income countries are the most impacted, with 87 percent of those deaths in poorer countries, mostly concentrated in South-East Asia and the Pacific.
So what can you do to breathe cleaner air? Not much on your own, WHO says.
“Most sources of outdoor air pollution are well beyond the control of individuals and demand action by cities, as well as national and international policymakers in sector like transport, energy waste management, buildings and agriculture,” the organization said.
For those larger actors, WHO recommends reducing smokestack emissions, adopting clean power, increasing recycling and improving energy efficiency of buildings, among others.