Air pollition damages both human health and the environment

Air pollution biggest contributor
 to stroke - worldwide study shows.

Air pollution has for the first time become one of the top contributors to stroke worldwide, according to the most detailed study of global risk factors for stroke ever conducted.

The research published in The Lancet Neurology journal found unclean air now causes more stroke-related death and disability than smoking. Globally, it was responsible for nearly 30 per cent of years of healthy life lost to a stroke in 2013, compared with 23 per cent for tobacco smoke.

"It's quite striking when you look at the map showing contribution of air pollution across the globe," said the study's lead author Valery Feigin, from Auckland University of Technology.

"The most significant contribution is in China and India, then it goes further to the west, like a belt.

Read Inga Ting’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Air pollution now a leading risk factor for stroke, global research finds.”