After a decade of continued increase, pollution declined in South Asia in 2022, which scientists attributed in part to above normal rainfall patterns, meaning that the drop in PM2.5 may not be sustained.
Despite this fall, the report reveals South Asia accounts for 45 percent of the total life years lost globally due to high pollution. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan – where 23.2 percent of the global population lives – are among the most polluted countries in the world.
“The average resident of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan is exposed to particulate pollution levels that are 22.3 per cent higher than at the turn of the century,” researchers conclude.
Bangladesh has consistently emerged as the most polluted South Asian country, where the annual average PM2.5 level in 2022 was more than 10 times the WHO guideline.
The average resident in the country of 166.4 million is likely to lose 4.8 years of life expectancy if the pollution level persists. This rises to 5.6 years in the capital Dhaka and 6.3 years in the city’s Gazipur district, the worst afflicted area.
India faces the highest health burden of air pollution on account of the large population that is exposed and an average resident in India is likely to lose 3.4 years of life expectancy if pollution levels persist, rising to 5.4 years in the Northern Plans – home to more than a half-billion people.
Pollution also blights life expectancies to various degrees across the rest of the world, including the Middle East and North Africa, where the average resident can see 1.3 years shaved from their lives, or as much as three to four in Qatar.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, air pollution is much a health threat as regional killers like HIV/AIDS, malaria and unsafe water, while in many parts of Latin America, such as Columbia, the toll on life expectancy is comparable to violence.
The United States has made significant progress in cutting particulate pollution, but 94 percent of the country does not meet WHO guidelines, with wildfires in California a contributing factor.
In Europe, residents are exposed to about 30.2 per cent less pollution than they were in 1998, yet 96.8 per cent of the continent still falls short of acceptable standards.
“Setting ambitious standards is only one part of the puzzle,” said Tanushree Ganguly, the director of the AQLI. “Equally important is implementing policies and monitoring mechanisms that help enforce these standards.”
Together, 77 per cent of countries and territories worldwide have either not met or do not have a national standard.
Experts say transparent government pollution monitoring is also key to confronting the challenge of achieving better air.
“Highly polluted countries that have little or no air quality data often fall into a bad feedback cycle where having little data leads to little attention or policy investment in the issue which reinforces little demand for data,” said Christa Hasenkopf, the director of the Clean Air Program at EPIC.
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