Air pollution has emerged as the deadliest form of pollution and is costing the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars and hampering economic development, a new study by the World Bank and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has found.

The ‘Cost of Air Pollution: Strengthening the economic case for action’ study highlighted air pollution as the fourth leading risk factor for premature deaths worldwide, with some 5.5-million lives lost in 2013 to diseases associated with outdoor and household air pollution.

The lost labour income from the premature deaths shaved $225-billion from the global economy in 2013.

“Air pollution is a challenge that threatens basic human welfare, damages natural and physical capital and constrains economic growth. We hope this study will translate the cost of premature deaths into an economic language that resonates with policy makers so that more resources will be devoted to improving air quality,” said World Bank sustainable development VP Laura Tuck.

The labour income losses from the premature deaths of the working-age population cost the equivalent of 0.83% of South Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP), while 0.25% was cut from the GDP of East Asia and the Pacific owing to the labour income losses in 2013.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the yearly labour income losses represented the equivalent of 0.61% of GDP.

“When looking at fatalities across all age groups through the lens of welfare losses, an approach commonly used to evaluate the costs and benefits of environmental regulations in a given country context, the aggregate cost of premature deaths was more than $5-trillion worldwide in 2013,” Tuck commented, pointing out that welfare losses related to air pollution in East and South Asia reached the equivalent of 7.5% of GDP.

“By supporting healthier cities and investments in cleaner sources of energy, we can reduce dangerous emissions, slow climate change and, most importantly, save lives,” she concluded.