Report: Pollution Causes More Deaths Than War, Smoking

The Takeaway | Oct 24, 2017

Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. 

A recent study found that one out of every six premature deaths around the world is caused by pollution. That means at least 9 million people die from pollution-related disease and toxic exposure each year, and the study’s authors have called that a conservative estimate.

In India, the rate is even higher. There, one in four early deaths are the result of pollution. In Haiti, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China, which is notorious for its poor air quality, the study found pollution causes one fifth of premature deaths. 

The report also estimated that pollution costs the world’s economy $4.6 trillion a year. Nil Basu, the Canada research chair in environmental health sciences at McGill University, and a toxicologist who was a co-author on the study, explains. 

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich.  

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