Southeast Asia needs to urgently tackle a spike in chronic respiratory diseases or face economic losses, a World Health Organization envoy warned.
Nine of the world’s ten most-polluted cities this year were Asian, and a recent study suggested that deaths linked to air pollution could cost Southeast Asia nearly $600 billion by 2050.
Poor air quality, coupled with many smokers in the region, has led to a rise in lung diseases, removing productive workers from the economy.
Ironically, it may be some governments’ emphasis on economic growth that makes them reluctant to tackle the crisis, an environmental economist told Nikkei.
These diseases are “not the crisis of the day,” the WHO official said, but they are still causing “losses to the economy.”