Air pollution caused more than 5.5 million premature deaths in 2013, with more than half of those occurring in China and India, according to a new study, and pollution mortalities are expected to continue rising.

Researchers found that poor air quality in China and India — the world's fastest growing economies — killed 1.6 million and 1.4 million people in those nations, respectively. Emissions from power plants, automobiles, industrial manufacturing, and inefficient heating systems and stoves have become a leading cause of death and disease worldwide, even as air pollution has decreased in high-income countries. "Air pollution ranks fourth globally as a risk factor for death in the world," Michael Brauer, a public health researcher at the University of British Columbia, said. "It's one of the big ones."

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