A research by the World Health Organisation has found that at least 5.5 million people die from air pollution yearly.
The study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was part of the WHO’s Global Burden of Disease project.
The researchers investigated indoor and outdoor air pollution levels to calculate the impact on health.
It was found that power plants, industrial manufacturing, vehicle exhaust and burning coal and wood posed the greatest risk to health as they were the leading sources of small particles that lodged in the lungs.
It was further found that China and India jointly accounted for more than half of the recorded deaths due to air pollution in 2013.
While 1.6 million in China died from air pollution in the period, 1.4 million died in India.
Furthermore, burning coal was identified as the leading cause of air pollution in China, while air pollution in India was mostly caused by burning of wood and animal dung for cooking and heating.