The world is covered by toxic air pollution and you can’t escape it

There is almost no part of the world that isn’t free from air pollution according to a new study from Monash University published in The Lancet Planetary Health. 

In a study that was the first of its kind to look at global air pollution levels, researchers found that less than 1% of the world was free from ambient fine particular matter.

Ambient fine particular matter (PM2.5) is the name given to a range of pollution particles that are all less than 2.5 microns according to an explanation from the Government of Canada.

“Put simply,” wrote API Metrology, “a micron is one-millionth of a meter… It can also be expressed as a thousandth of a millimeter or 39 millionths of an inch.”

For a better comparison, API Metrology noted that the size of a single micron was smaller than even bacteria, so a human eye could never actually see a micron. 

In the study from researchers at Monash University, they found that only 0.18% of the world’s landmass wasn't covered by ambient fine particulate matter.

More importantly, the researchers also discovered that less than 0.001% of the world’s population wasn’t exposed to some level of ambient fine particulate matter. 

Professor Yuming Guo led the research team that made the groundbreaking discovery into global pollution levels and said it gave us critical insight into the problems we face. 

"It provides a deep understanding of the current state of outdoor air pollution and its impacts on human health,” Guo said in a statement distributed by Monash University with information from the study. 

“With this information,” Guo added, “policymakers, public health officials, and researchers can better assess the short-term and long-term health effects of air pollution and develop air pollution mitigation strategies."

Science Daily covered some of the more important parts of Professor Guo's research and noted some of the study’s most interesting findings. 

The highest concentrations of ambient fine particulate matter were discovered to be in Southern and Eastern Asia followed by Eastern Africa. 

In 2019, Australia and New Zealand saw a large increase in the number of days they were exposed to high levels of ambient fine particular matter but still had the lowest annual levels along with other areas of Oceania and South America.

Guo noted that different areas also saw different levels of pollution based on the time of year, with Science Daily quoting the professor saying that "included Northeast China and North India during their winter months."

The Eastern and Northern United States, however, had higher ambient fine particulate matter levels “in its summer months (June, July, and August)."

"We also recorded relatively high [levels of] air pollution in August and September in South America and from June to September in sub-Saharan Africa," Guo added. 

In 2022, The World Health Organization estimated that roughly 4.2 million people died from “exposure to outdoor air pollution.”