The World Bank, Washington, WA, USA.
Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 22;14(1):4432. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39797-4.
Air pollution is one of the leading causes of health complications and mortality worldwide, especially affecting lower-income groups, who tend to be more exposed and vulnerable. This study documents the relationship between ambient air pollution exposure and poverty in 211 countries and territories. Using the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2021 revised fine particulate matter (PM2.5) thresholds, we show that globally, 7.3 billion people are directly exposed to unsafe average annual PM2.5 concentrations, 80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, 716 million of the world's lowest income people (living on less than $1.90 per day) live in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Air pollution levels are particularly high in lower-middle-income countries, where economies tend to rely more heavily on polluting industries and technologies. These findings are based on high-resolution air pollution and population maps with global coverage, as well as subnational poverty estimates based on harmonized household surveys.
空气污染是全球范围内导致健康问题和死亡的主要原因之一,尤其对低收入群体的影响更大,因为他们更容易受到污染和伤害。本研究记录了 211 个国家和地区的环境空气污染暴露与贫困之间的关系。使用世界卫生组织(WHO)2021 年修订的细颗粒物(PM2.5)标准,我们发现,全球有 73 亿人直接暴露在不安全的年平均 PM2.5 浓度下,其中 80%生活在中低收入国家。此外,世界上有 7160 万最低收入人群(每天生活费不足 1.90 美元)生活在空气污染水平不安全的地区,特别是在撒哈拉以南非洲。在中低收入国家,空气污染水平特别高,因为这些国家的经济往往更依赖于污染严重的产业和技术。这些发现基于具有全球覆盖范围的高分辨率空气污染和人口地图,以及基于协调一致的家庭调查的国家级贫困估计数据。