Calls for a global fund to tackle air pollution, killer of 7m a year

Health campaigners are voicing concerns that the issue is being neglected - despite the devastating death toll around the world

Seven million people die each year from illnesses attributable to air pollution, yet it has never had global recognition in the same way as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, and now there are growing calls from the health sector for that to change.

Relative to other health issues that have access to billion-dollar global funds, air pollution has a far greater health impact, said Christa Hasenkopf, the director of clean air programmes at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (Epic).