Africa’s silent killer: Solutions must be found to air pollution

Outdoor air pollution was linked to 45 out of 100 000 deaths in South Africa in 2019, a new report by the Health Effects Institute has revealed.

The analysis of the state of air quality and related health impacts in Africa was produced by the State of Global Air initiative, which is a collaboration between the United States-based Health Effects Institute, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease project.

Air pollution is the second-leading risk factor for death across the continent, behind malnutrition, the report found. Dirty air contributed to an estimated 1.1-million deaths in Africa in 2019, with 63% of these deaths associated with exposure to household air pollution. 

The annual cost of health damage because of disease-related air pollution amounts to an average of 6.5% of GDP across Africa. In Egypt, Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and South Africa the combined annual cost of health damage from  exposure is more than $5.4-billion.

The report described how an extensive body of scientific evidence, gathered over several decades, links long-term exposures to air pollution with an increased risk of illness and death from chronic conditions such as ischemic heart disease, lung cancer, obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.