"Pollution Kills 9 Million A Year, Costs $4.6 Trillion" - Katy Daigle
Environmental pollution — from filthy air to contaminated water — is killing more people every year than all war and violence in the world; more than smoking, hunger or natural disasters. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. One out of every six premature deaths in the world in 2015 — about 9 million — could be attributed to disease from toxic exposure, according to a major study released Thursday in the Lancet medical journal. The financial cost from pollution-related death, sickness and welfare is equally massive, the report says, costing some $4.6 trillion in annual losses — or about 6.2 percent of the global economy. "There's been a lot of study of pollution, but it's never received the resources or level of attention as, say, AIDS or climate change,” said the lead author of the report, Philip Landrigan, MD, MSc, professor of environmental medicine and public health, pediatrics and dean of global health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The report marks the first attempt to pull together data on disease and death caused by all forms of pollution combined.
- Philip Landrigan, MD, MSc, Professor, Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Pediatrics, Dean for Global Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
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