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WHO / AIR QUALITY CONTROL GUIDELINES
STORY: WHO / AIR QUALITY CONTROL GUIDELINES
TRT: 5:11
SOPURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 22 SEPTEMBER 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, press room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"Because of air pollution, the simple act of breathing contributes to 7 million deaths a year. Almost everyone around the world is exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution. Inhaling dirty air increases the risk of respiratory diseases like pneumonia, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and increases the risk of severe COVID-19. It’s also a major cause of other noncommunicable diseases like ischaemic heart disease, stroke, and cancers. Air pollution is a health threat in all countries, but especially for vulnerable groups in low- and middle-income countries with poor air quality due to urbanization and rapid economic development, and air pollution in the home caused by cooking, heating and lighting. "
3. Wide shot, press room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"Today, we’re proud to launch the updated WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines, which provide clear evidence of the damage air pollution inflicts on human health. Since the last update in 2005, a substantial new body of evidence has accumulated, further demonstrating the degree to which air pollution affects all parts of the body, from the brain to a growing baby in a mother’s womb, at even lower concentrations than previously observed. That’s why these new guidelines include lower recommended levels for pollutants including particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone. These new guidelines will have major implications for public health. They provide a practical tool for improving air quality around the world, and a robust evidence-base for developing national and local air quality standards. "
5. Wide shot, press room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe:
"The last time WHO published air quality guidelines was in 2006. In the 15 years since, it has been a substantial increase in evidence of how and to what degree air pollution affects different aspects of human health. For that reason and after a thorough, systematic review of this accumulated evidence, almost all the updated guidelines levels are now lower than they were 15 years ago. We know that for many countries, this places the bar even higher than before. However, these guidelines also provide interim targets to support a stepwise progress towards that achievement and thus a gradual, yet measurable public health benefit. "
7. Wide shot, press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe:
"The next step is now for policymakers around the world to use these guidelines to develop evidence informed policies to decrease the unacceptable health burden that results from air pollution exposure. "
9. Wide shot, press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health:
"WHO is preparing a very big report to be presented at the COP26 to a strengthen the importance of having more action on mitigating the causes of climate change because those mitigation of the interventions will have enormous health benefits, and most of the health benefits of mitigating the causes of climate change will come in the sense that they will reduce the levels of air pollution. And by doing so, you can imagine the incredible number of lives we will save. "
11. Wide shot, Tedros and Neira in press room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health:
"If we want to reduce the levels of air pollution globally, one of the key questions is related to the energy sector, so the call by launching today these updated air quality guidelines is very much about accelerating this healthy energy transition that is very much needed. Moving to renewable and clean sources of energy because this will have a very positive impact on reducing the greenhouse gases emissions and therefore tackling the causes of climate change and reducing air pollution. And both are critical pillars of our health. "
13. Close up, WHO Seal on a wall
New World Health Organization (WHO) Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) provide clear evidence of the damage air pollution inflicts on human health, at even lower concentrations than previously understood. The guidelines recommend new air quality levels to protect the health of populations, by reducing levels of key air pollutants, some of which also contribute to climate change.
Since WHO’s last 2005 global update, there has been a marked increase of evidence that shows how air pollution affects different aspects of health. For that reason, and after a systematic review of the accumulated evidence, WHO has adjusted almost all the AQGs levels downwards, warning that exceeding the new air quality guideline levels is associated with significant risks to health. At the same time, however, adhering to them could save millions of lives.
Every year, exposure to air pollution is estimated to cause 7 million premature deaths and result in the loss of millions more healthy years of life. In children, this could include reduced lung growth and function, respiratory infections and aggravated asthma. In adults, ischaemic heart disease and stroke are the most common causes of premature death attributable to outdoor air pollution, and evidence is also emerging of other effects such as diabetes and neurodegenerative conditions. This puts the burden of disease attributable to air pollution on a par with other major global health risks such as unhealthy diet and tobacco smoking.
Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, alongside climate change. Improving air quality can enhance climate change mitigation efforts, while reducing emissions will in turn improve air quality. By striving to achieve these guideline levels, countries will be both protecting health as well as mitigating global climate change.
WHO’s new guidelines recommend air quality levels for 6 pollutants, where evidence has advanced the most on health effects from exposure. When action is taken on these so-called classical pollutants – particulate matter (PM), ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO), it also has an impact on other damaging pollutants.
The health risks associated with particulate matter equal or smaller than 10 and 2.5 microns (µm) in diameter (PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅, respectively) are of particular public health relevance. Both PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀ are capable of penetrating deep into the lungs but PM₂.₅ can even enter the bloodstream, primarily resulting in cardiovascular and respiratory impacts, and also affecting other organs. PM is primarily generated by fuel combustion in different sectors, including transport, energy, households, industry, and from agriculture. In 2013, outdoor air pollution and particulate matter were classified as carcinogenic by WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The guidelines also highlight good practices for the management of certain types of particulate matter (for example, black carbon/elemental carbon, ultrafine particles, particles originating from sand and dust storms) for which there is currently insufficient quantitative evidence to set air quality guideline levels. They are applicable to both outdoor and indoor environments globally, and cover all settings.
“Air pollution is a threat to health in all countries, but it hits people in low- and middle-income countries the hardest,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Disparities in air pollution exposure are increasing worldwide, particularly as low- and middle-income countries are experiencing growing levels of air pollution because of large-scale urbanization and economic development that has largely relied on the burning of fossil fuels.
Global assessments of ambient air pollution alone suggest hundreds of millions of healthy life years of life lost, with the greatest attributable disease burden seen in low and middle-income countries. The more exposed to air pollution they are, the greater the health impact, particularly on individuals with chronic conditions (such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart disease), as well as older people, children and pregnant women.
In 2019, more than 90 percent of the global population lived in areas where concentrations exceeded the 2005 WHO air quality guideline for long term exposure to PM₂.₅. Countries with strong policy-driven improvements in air quality have often seen marked reduction in air pollution, whereas declines over the past 30 years were less noticeable in regions with already good air quality.
The road to achieving recommended air quality guideline levels
The goal of the guideline is for all countries to achieve recommended air quality levels. Conscious that this will be a difficult task for many countries and regions struggling with high air pollution levels, WHO has proposed interim targets to facilitate stepwise improvement in air quality and thus gradual, but meaningful, health benefits for the population.
Almost 80 percent of deaths related to PM₂.₅ could be avoided in the world if the current air pollution levels were reduced to those proposed in the updated guideline, according to a rapid scenario analysis performed by WHO. At the same time, the achievement of interim targets would result in reducing the burden of disease, of which the greatest benefit would be observed in countries with high concentrations of fine particulates (PM₂.₅) and large populations.
Whilst not legally-binding, like all WHO guidelines, AQGs are an evidence-informed tool for policy-makers to guide legislation and policies, in order to reduce levels of air pollutants and decrease the burden of disease that results from exposure to air pollution worldwide. Their development has adhered to a rigorously defined methodology, implemented by a guideline development group. It was based on evidence obtained from six systematic reviews that considered more than 500 papers. The development of these global AQGs was overseen by a steering group led by the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health.
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