Experts anticipated global air pollution to soar by 2016

Environmental experts have said they’re not surprised by a new report which finds that more than nine out of ten people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution.

The World Health Organisation urged politicians and leaders to improve policies to confront the problem.

Its report published on Monday highlighted countries such as India and China, but also said the eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions were badly affected.

In Russia Greenpeace blame several factors – and say the authorities don’t take the problem seriously enough.

“Today, questions related to environmental protection, that may increase death rate, are not a priority in our country. Although it may seem that Russia is a country where such questions should be discussed. Apart from air pollution, there’s also radiation: today millions of people live in radioactively polluted territories,” head of Energy Programme at Greenpeace Russia, Vladimir Chuprov said.

In New Delhi, the level of the smallest particles in the air is 25 times the international safe limit. Researchers also blame a lack of official action against the poor air quality.

At least, they point out, they’re not alone.

“We have this image that the European world has a very good air quality and so we have that image that only the Indian, only the Asian cities, only the Asian countries and also the African continent has this problem of air pollution. But the best thing is this report actually tells that the European world is also facing the similar problem,” said Usman Nasim, a research associate from Centre for Science and Environment:

Despite some measures restricting car use in New Delhi, some 1,500 new vehicles are said to take to the roads every day.