Average Person Losing 1.8 Years of Life Expectancy Due to Air Pollution

By Rahab Mbiriti (Statistician)

An average person is losing 1.8 years of life expectancy due to particulate pollution exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. This is according to the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index report published on Monday 19th November 2018.

The report found that air pollution is the world’s top killer claiming at least nine million lives every year. The researchers state that if the current state of particulate pollution persists, the global population will lose a total of 12.8 billion years of life.

The WHO has set a guideline of 10 µg/m3 as the safe level of long-term average particulate pollution. However, most countries exceed this limit putting the lives of many at the risk of developing diseases caused by particulate pollution such as lung disease, cancer, strokes or heart attacks. If the entire planet permanently met the WHO guideline, the average person would live 1.8 years longer, extending life expectancy to 74 years.

The report further says that some parts of the world are more affected than others, and in some parts of India, people could lose up to 11 years of life expectancy due to inhaling polluted air. On average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if their country met the WHO guideline.

The average loss in life expectancy increased from 1.0 in 1998 to 1.8 in 2016 with developing countries across Africa and Asia primarily experiencing increases in air pollution.

In 2014, Kenya gazetted Air Quality Regulations that specify air quality standards, as well as steps to be taken for “prevention, control and reduction” of air pollution in recognition of the terrible toll it takes on the health of Kenyans’ health.

The 2017 Kenya Economic Survey estimated that 19.9 million Kenyans suffer from respiratory ailments that are caused due to poor air quality. However, it is clear that the government has been unable to enforce the regulations due to a lack of high-quality air quality monitoring data.