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WHO: Excessive air pollution affects 92 percent of people

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2015 file photo, a woman wearing a mask for protection against pollution walks on a pedestrian overhead bridge as office buildings are shrouded with smog in Beijing. More than nine out of 10 people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to problems like strokes, heart disease and lung cancer, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016. The U.N. health agency said in a new report that 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with southeast Asia, eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions hardest hit. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2015 file photo, a woman wearing a mask for protection against pollution walks on a pedestrian overhead bridge as office buildings are shrouded with smog in Beijing. More than nine out of 10 people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to problems like strokes, heart disease and lung cancer, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016. The U.N. health agency said in a new report that 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with southeast Asia, eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions hardest hit. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2015 file photo, a woman wearing a mask for protection against pollution walks on a pedestrian overhead bridge as office buildings are shrouded with smog in Beijing. More than nine out of 10 people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to problems like strokes, heart disease and lung cancer, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016. The U.N. health agency said in a new report that 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with southeast Asia, eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions hardest hit. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

By Associated Press 3 min read

GENEVA (AP) – More than nine out of 10 people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and other problems, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The U.N. health agency said in a new report that 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with southeast Asia, eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions hardest hit.

The country-by-country figures come from new satellite data over rural areas to complement traditional ground measurements of pollution, mostly in cities, in about 3,000 places worldwide. A similar WHO report released in May that said 98 percent of residents in large cities of low- and middle-income countries face excessively high air pollution.

WHO says one in nine deaths worldwide is linked to indoor and outdoor pollution.

Turkmenistan has the highest rate of deaths per capita due to ambient air pollution in the WHO’s classification, followed by Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and China.