DHAKA: Seven million people died as a result of air pollution in 2012, the World Health Organization estimates.

Its findings suggest a link between air pollution and heart disease, respiratory problems and cancer.

One in eight global deaths were linked with air pollution, making it ‘the world’s largest single environmental health risk’, the WHO said, reports the BBC.

Nearly six million of the deaths had been in South East Asia and the WHO’s Western Pacific region, it found.

The WHO said about 3.3 million people had died as a result of indoor air pollution and 2.6 million deaths were related to outdoor air pollution, mainly in low- and middle-income countries in those regions.

WHO public health, environmental and social determinants of health department director Dr Maria Neira said, ‘The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes’.

‘Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution.’

‘The evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe.’

Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives, said the WHO.

BDST: 1945 HRS, MAR 25, 2014