(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to a new report that was released this Friday, annually five million individuals die because of pollution. The majority of deaths take place in India and China where they still have coal-fired factories and power plants that fill the air with a dense smog.

According to the authors of the study, illnesses that derive from household and air pollution are the number two cause of deaths worldwide. The five million individuals that lose their life because of pollution are just behind the six million that die due to smoking, according to the Organization for World Health (WHO).

The research is part of a broader initiative that is keen on monitoring the global burden of illnesses. The paper will be presented by the researchers at the annual meeting of the Washington’s Advancement of Science American Association.

Air pollution is made out of a great variety of particulate matter that originates from transportation, open burn and power generation. More precisely it consists of the waste that cars and big power plants and factories leave behind them.

Household pollution is as dangerous as air pollution and it is generated by the burning of wood, coal or animal dung in household stoves. These materials are usually burned in stoves in Africa and India and have a double purpose of cooking and heating.

Both types of pollution can lead to serious health complications like strokes and heart attacks. Almost one million individuals die each year in China because of pollution. That is a fifth of the deaths that are registered worldwide.

India loses more than a half of million inhabitants each year and the United States registers approximately 300,000 deaths each year that are caused by pollution.

The co-author of the study, Dan Greenbaum, who is also the president of the Boston’s Institute of Health Effects declared that they used data from 2013 for their reports. But as he said, the numbers don’t change very much from year to year, so the report is not affected.

The government in China is aware of the problem that they are facing and is actively and aggressively trying to implement measures that will improve the quality of the country’s air. The government officials are forcing automobiles to be equipped with environmentally friendly technology and the power plants to lower their particulates emissions.

But the pollution in China is spreading over the country’s territory and towards the West Coast of the United States. Annually five million individuals die because of pollution and one million are only in China.

According to the estimates, the numbers could reach 1.3 million individuals by 2030 if they will not drastically change their polluting factors.

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