How Brazil’s air pollution threatens its future

Approximately seven million people die each year as a consequence of air pollution, with 90 percent of these deaths taking place in low- and middle-income countries, according to new findings. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest research shows that although countries are making efforts to mitigate air pollution’s causes, strategies are not keeping pace with population growth.

“We have a long way to go in Brazil,” said Dr. Adalgiza Fornaro, a professor at the University of São Paulo’s atmospheric science department. “In relation to the WHO’s recommendations, all the cities which have established monitoring show that we’re in a pretty bad situation.”

Nine in ten people across the world breathe air containing high levels of pollutants, according to the study. The WHO study separates air pollution into two main categories: ambient (outdoor, such as transport fumes) and household (indoor, such as cooking with polluting fuels).

Ambient pollution caused 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution was responsible for 3.8 million deaths. Globally, some three billion people – just over 40 percent of the planet’s population – lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in their homes. While many of these occurred in Asian and African countries, some small industrial towns in the east Mediterranean region and the Americas had similar levels of air pollution.

Household air pollution has been decreasing since 1990, as renewable energy sources and liquefied petroleum gas replace wood, straw,...