Air pollution is causing more strokes than smoking

For the first time, air pollution has become the top contributor to strokes globally, according to research published in The Lancet Neurology journal, with unclean air now causing more stroke-related death and disability than smoking. It is responsible for nearly 30% of years of health life lost to a stroke in 2013 worldwide, compared with 23% for tobacco smoke. Fumes from car exhausts, factories and power plants are all major sources of air pollution with those at greatest risk being low and middle class income nations. Also of concern is the rising amount of stroke-related deaths and disability related to sugar-sweetened drinks; figures have almost doubled between 1990 and 2013, soaring by 84% in high-income countries.

Air pollution has for the first time become one of the top contributors to stroke worldwide, according to the most detailed study of global risk factors for stroke ever conducted.

The research published in The Lancet Neurology journal found unclean air now causes more stroke-related death and disability than smoking. Globally, it was responsible for nearly 30 per cent of years of healthy life lost to a stroke in 2013, compared with 23 per cent for tobacco smoke.

Professor Thrift says anti-smoking legislation has "translated into behavioural changes that have really put Australia at the forefront of changes to reduce smoking worldwide". Credit: Tamara Voninski

"It's quite striking when you look at the map showing contribution of air pollution across the globe," said the study's lead author Valery Feigin, from Auckland University of Technology.

"The most significant contribution is in China and India, then it goes further to the west, like a belt.