Air pollution kills thousands a year in the UK and abroad – why isn’t there a bigger uproar? |
Breathwork is everywhere, whether it’s in yoga studios, corporate retreats or self-help reels. We’re told to “just breathe”. Be mindful. Lower our stress levels. Inhale. Exhale. In the yogic tradition, bringing clean air into our lungs and our body (pranayama in Sanskrit) is about purifying and detoxing, and then exhaling what we don’t need. That all sounds great if you live on a remote island or in the middle of a forest – but what if that air isn’t cleansing us, but making us sick?
According to the World Health Organization, 99% of the global population is exposed to air-pollution levels that exceed its health-based guidelines and air pollution is now the world’s single largest environmental risk, linked to nearly 7 million premature deaths each year. This isn’t an issue of future climate collapse or one that will affect future generations. This is about today – and the damage polluted air is doing to our hearts, lungs, brains and blood vessels.
In some places, air pollution has reached a crisis point. Those places are a warning to other cities across the world of what unregulated and unmitigated air pollution looks like. Take New Delhi, which many consider to be the most polluted capital in the world. During peak pollution periods, PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi regularly exceed WHO guideline levels by roughly 24 times. According to the Air Quality Life Index, that exposure is estimated to........