Air Pollution Kills 780,000 People in Africa Annually – Research

BY NDIMUH B. SHANCHO

A team of American researchers led by Susanne Bauer has revealed in a research work published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, February 17, 2019, that air pollution induces 780,000 premature deaths in Africa yearly.

After using global atmospheric composition, climate, and health models, the researchers disclosed that “780,000 premature deaths annually point to the extensive health impacts of natural emissions, high mortality rate caused by industrialization in Nigeria and South Africa, and a smaller extent by fire emissions in Central and West Africa”.

They added that 43,000 premature deaths in Africa are linked to biomass burning mainly driven by agriculture. “Our results also show that natural sources, in particular, windblown dust emissions, have large impacts on air quality and human health in Africa,” the researchers opined.

According to the Susanne Bauer’s-led research team, Africa holds the world largest source of desert dust emissions, undergoes strong industrial growth, and produces approximately a third of the Earth’s biomass burning aerosol particles. They attributed biomass burning in Sub‐Saharan Africa to agricultural practices like burning fields and bushes in the postharvest season for fertilization, land management, and pest control. To the researchers, emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa, are predominantly anthropogenic.