The State of Global Air report, released Wednesday, includes data from more than 200 countries and territories around the world which shows that air pollution is having a growing impact on people’s health and is now the second biggest cause of death after high blood pressure.

The report also says air pollution is the second-leading cause of death for children under five years old, after malnutrition. In 2021, half a million children under five died because polluting fuels like firewood or coal were used for cooking in the home. The phenomenon is especially alarming in African and Asian countries.

Evans Amukoye, a research scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, said, "It is not just carbon monoxide. One of the biggest problems is particulate matter. Particulate matter is what we usually call PM2.5 and this is associated with pneumonia, asthma, and so on.”

According to the report, more than 90% of air pollution deaths – the deaths of 7.8 million people in 2021 – were due to outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5).