World’s leading environmental health risk

According to the World Health Organization, household air pollution (from gases, chemicals and other substances) is the world’s leading environmental health risk. 3.8 million deaths, and 50% of pneumonia deaths in children under 5 are due to household air pollution. Over 3 billion people globally rely on polluting energy sources for cooking. Pollutants with the strongest evidence for public health concern include particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2).