Each year, air pollution is estimated to lead to more than eight million premature deaths globally. This is mainly through cardiovascular diseases, to which more than a million lives are lost each year in Africa alone. More than half of CVD deaths in Africa occur prematurely: between the ages of 30 and 70.
According to recent studies, air pollution is Nigeria’s fourth biggest killer. So severe is the issue that, without decisive action, CVDs could well pass infectious diseases as Africa’s leading cause of mortality.
Some African nations have already taken important steps to fix this issue, and Nigeria’s National Action Plan to Reduce SLCPs (short-lived climate pollutants) is one of many vital plans designed to reduce overall air pollution. However, greater investment in reliable air quality monitoring is key to tackling this public health crisis.
The links between air pollution and CVD are well-documented. Beyond the smoke and smog that we can see, tiny invisible particles can get deep into the lungs, heart, and other organs. These particles can cause inflammation and damage to blood vessels, raising the risk of problems like clogged arteries, strokes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and irregular heartbeats. Even short-term exposure can harm heart health.
The 2024 World Heart Report by the World Heart Federation found that only 24 of 54 countries in Africa are currently set up to measure air quality. With the support of the WHF and the Clean Air Fund, we conducted a thorough review of the available research on air pollution and CVD in Africa to try to better understand the problem.
Concerningly, there were only 6 studies using hospital data to look at the links between air pollution and CVD. Most were confined to South Africa, where air pollution and the types of health conditions may be unrepresentative of the wider continent.
The World Heart Report suggested the problem could be getting worse. The report found that 60 per cent of countries in Africa showed an increase in pollution levels of fine particles in the air.
As the report recognised, to further that research, we needed more on-the-ground monitoring stations to measure air quality. A long-standing scarcity of information has made it challenging for communities and governments to take effective action. This information gap must be addressed by both domestic governments and the international community together.
Our research findings are clear. More investment, both domestic and international, must be targeted towards three key initiatives to prevent what could become a critical public health crisis:
We must improve air quality monitoring across Africa to better understand the sources of pollution in different regions.
We need more research on how people in both urban and rural areas are exposed to air pollutants and the impact this has on heart disease.
Communities need the tools and support to measure the impact of their efforts to reduce emissions and pollution.
Despite the need for investment, the latest research from the Clean Air Fund shows that only one per cent of all international development funding targeted outdoor air pollution projects from 2018 to 2022. Nigeria received just $0.25m in international development funding to target the problem between 2015 and 2020.
In 2015, the United Nations set out to reduce premature deaths from non-communicable diseases like CVD by 33 per cent by 2030, under the SDG Target 3.4. The question now is whether these goals can be backed with decisive action, helping countries to equip themselves for the fight against air pollution. In Nigeria, and in Africa as a whole, where the problem is already critical, lives are depending on it.
By Dr Mark Miller, Reader at the University of Edinburgh and Chair of the World Heart Federation Air Pollution and Climate Change Expert Group; Professor Mariachiara Di Cesare is the Director of the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing at the University of Essex, member of the World Heart Federation Science Committee; and Marvellous Adeoye is Research Officer, Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing, University of Essex.
