Breathless: Why Air Pollution Matters – and How it Affects You

by Chris Woodford

An introduction to the world's biggest, environmental, public-health problem, its causes, effects, and solutions, illustrated with simple charts and infographics, and featuring air-quality tests around the home and beyond.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2021

About the author

Chris Woodford writes popular science and technology books for adults and children. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. His books include the bestselling "Cool Stuff" series for Dorling Kindersley, and he also writes the popular science education website Explain that Stuff.

Reviews

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's ironic that the very stuff keeping us alive is killing more of us than anything else on the planet: the equivalent of 7-10 million people each year—four times more than road accidents, three times more than cigarettes, 15 times more than wars and violence, and more than malaria and AIDS combined. Dirty air affects every country and continent, rural areas as well as cities, and children and the elderly are most at risk. If you knew what the air really contained, you might stop to think twice before breathing it. Air pollution seems like an irritating throwback to the Industrial Revolution but, 300 years after the invention of the steam engine, it remains the biggest environmental threat to public health. In most major cities people are routinely breathing particulates (microscopic soot, mainly from vehicles) at twice, and in some places up to 10 times, safe World Health Organization guidelines. Remarkably, 90 percent of the world’s entire population breathes polluted air. The consequence? Air pollution is now a prime suspect in six of the top ten causes of death—not just lung cancer and breathing disorders, but also heart disease, stroke, and dementia. The simple statistics are shocking enough, but they mask a vast human cost: any of the world's millions of air pollution deaths could follow years of chronic suffering: if dirty air is going to kill you, medical research suggests it will shorten your life by a decade before it does so.

And the cost isn’t just to our health: according to the World Bank, polluted air robs the global economy of $5 trillion a year—roughly three times what the world spends on defence. From Delhi (where the air can be as bad for you as smoking 50 cigarettes a day) to Mexico City (where the concrete walls of a cutting-edge hospital are helping to mop up traffic fumes), from Paris (where winter smog wipes the Eiffel Tower from the skyline) to Hong Kong (where tourists, tired of pollution, take selfies in front of fake photographic backdrops), and from Beijing (where a third of air pollution pumps from factories making western goods) to Washington (where politicians are systematically downplaying the links between dirty air and poor health), Breathless takes us on a whistle-stop world tour of a cruelly-neglected issue. Will better technology—things like electric cars—really make a difference? Why do we expect new laws to clean up our cities when old ones have failed to do so for decades? What will it take to make our governments get a firm grip on this most intractable of problems? This is a fascinating, insightful and eye-opening read packed with research and statistics on how pollution can negatively affect our lifespan. I am lucky to live in a rural area where air pollution doesn't really exist but it's clear even when travelling to the closest city that the air quality has drastically changed. As the author states it's high time that governments the world over address this burning issue. Highly recommended.

[Christian Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Urgent, timely, detailed, comprehensive.... and frightening. Perhaps a little bit longer than I would have liked, but it was good to have more detail than some of the other, similar books on this topic. Very international in scope, though why all books about air pollution seem to be written by Brits (rather than, say, Indians or Chinese) is a bit of a mystery to me!

[Coepi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very informative, well-researched book and a good introduction to the topic of air pollution. If you didn't already care about clean air before reading this, you will afterwards.

I do have two slight critiques however. Firstly, Breathless felt a little dry at times; I think a key part of a good nonfiction book is creating an engaging narrative out of the facts, but I'm not sure Woodford succeeded at this. I also would have appreciated more exploration of the idea that air pollution is an environmental justice issue. While he does touch on that, at times I felt Woodford leaned too heavily on the point that we all share responsibility for air pollution, at the expense of the point that this is a problem that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable people.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fear. Emotion. No reason. The new science. All to make the reader give up reason and prop up dictators.