The limits that are set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) far exceed for over 80 percent of people who are living in urban areas and are monitoring air pollution levels. They have been identified to be living with very poor air quality levels.

The WHO’s guidelines for air quality were not met in almost all the cities – 98 percent, that are situated in the “low and middle income countries” and those cities with a population of more than 100,000 people did not meet the WHO’s guidelines for air quality, the association said very recently in a news release.

The same figure for less ambient air quality dropped off to just 56 percent in countries that had high incomes.

In addition to “chronic and acute respiratory diseases” such as asthma, the risk of other serious and terminal ailments like lung cancer, heart disease and stroke gets enhanced in direct proportion to a decline in the urban air quality, said the WHO.

Flavia Bustreo, the WHO’s assistant director general for family, women and children’s health described air pollution was described as a “major cause of disease and death”.

“When dirty air blankets our cities the most vulnerable urban populations—the youngest, oldest and poorest—are the most impacted,” Bustreo went on to add.

Air pollution has a significant financial cost on any economy apart from it being an agent that is potentially deadly. The economy of UK has to spend more than £20 billion ($28.9 billion) annually in addition to 40,000 deaths in the every year every year due to high outdoor air pollution, said a recent report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Royal College of Physicians.

With high income countries experiencing, in general, the lowest levels, and low and middle income countries experiencing the highest, the WHO also said that between 2008 and 2013, global “urban air pollution levels” rose by 8 percent.

There were reported cases of over three million early deaths annually due to low quality of ambient air pollution – which consists of “high concentrations of small and fine particulate matter”, says the WHO.

“It is crucial for city and national governments to make urban air quality a health and development priority,” the WHO’s Carlos Dora said.

“When air quality improves, health costs from air pollution-related diseases shrink, worker productivity expands and life expectancy grows. Reducing air pollution also brings an added climate bonus, which can become a part of countries’ commitments to the climate treaty,” Dora added.

(Adapted from CNBC)