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More than 5 million people around the world die an untimely death due to breathing polluted air and most of these deaths occur in India and China. The factories in both these countries are powered by coal-fire that is fueling the economic growth, said a report released on Friday.

According to the study authors, the findings reveal that the second most common cause of death worldwide is air and household pollution. These two factors come second only to smoking which kills more than 6 million people annually, says World Health Organization.

The research, conducted to monitor the burden of diseases globally, will be discussed at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington, reported Philly.com

At the AAAS annual meeting, Qiao Ma, a PhD student at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, revealed that more than 366,000 people were killed by air pollution caused by coal in 2013 in China. She said: "Our study highlights the urgent need for even more aggressive strategies to reduce emissions from coal and from other sectors."

According to the scientists at Imperial College London, when you are exposed to airborne toxins, the risk of premature death grows by 14%. Anna Hansell from Imperial College London added, "What we are breathing in now may be more toxic than what we were exposed to in the past. It used to be mainly from heavy industry. Now there is a complex mix of pollutants in the air," as reported by Mirror

Professor Michael Brauer, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, said: "Air pollution is the fourth highest risk factor for death globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease. Reducing air pollution is an incredibly efficient way to improve the health of a population," says Independent