Air pollution kills 7 million people every year, says WHO report
China Photos/Getty Images

Around 7 million people worldwide are going to die from air pollution this year — thus making it the environment's single biggest health risk, declares a new report from the World Health Organization. That means dirty air is the cause of one in eight deaths globally.
The new estimates are double previous figures, largely due to new detection methods and better information on pollution's health effects. The report also says that women in developing countries are more at risk of exposure to dirty air than men, as a lot of women in Asian countries endure indoor pollution caused by their use of wood and coal stoves. Of the 3.7 million people who died from outdoor pollution, 90 percent were in developing countries.
Read the rest of the report at The Guardian.
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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
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