One in eight people worldwide is dying from air pollution, world health officials claimed today.
In 2012 this amounted to seven million people, according to the World Health Organisation.
The problem largely blights south east Asia and the western Pacific, WHO says.
In this region some 3.3 million deaths were linked to indoor air pollution and 2.6 million deaths to outdoor air pollution.
WHO says millions of deaths are caused by people using coal, wood and biomass stoves in the home for cooking and heating.
It says new evidence links pollution directly to heart disease and stroke as well as to lung diseases.
WHO assistant director-general Dr Flavia Bustreo said: "Cleaning up the air we breathe prevents non-communicable diseases as well as reduces disease risks among women and vulnerable groups, including children and the elderly.
“Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from leaky coal and wood cook stoves.”
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