Air pollution, both indoors and outdoors, is killing many people around the world, including children, and is now more deadly than smoking, according to a report released under the auspices of Unicef.

More than eight million people, including 700,000 children under the age of five, died in 2021 from causes linked to air pollution, according to this work prepared by scientists from the US Health Effects Institute.

These results are based on Global Burden Disease, a huge database with data from more than 200 countries. However, these were not published in a scientific journal.

At the level of mortality reported by the researchers, exposure to air pollution is said to represent a greater threat than smoking or poor diet.

In most cases, air pollution-related deaths are due to the inhalation of so-called PM2.5 fine particles, smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter.

These particles are known to promote many diseases: lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes.

The authors of the report highlight the increasingly deadly role of ozone pollution, which is amplified by episodes linked to climate warming.

“We are seeing more and more areas around the world exposed to intense and very short episodes of air pollution,” researcher Pallavi Pandey, a member of the Health Effects Institute, told AFP, referring to forest fires or intense heat waves.

In terms of child mortality, however, initially the problematic use of cooking fuels – coal, wood – is mainly blamed in Asia and Africa.

“We know we could solve these kinds of problems,” Pand stressed.

Efforts have already been made to facilitate access to less hazardous cooking techniques, which have contributed greatly to the more than halving of child mortality linked to air quality since 2000, according to the report.