When it comes to killing people, pollution, especially air pollution, gets little respect. Traffic accidents, cancer, heart attack, war, drugs and alcohol are not only carefully measured by experts but readily blamed for cutting lives short.

But a new report published in The Lancet Planetary Health concludes that pollution is responsible for nine million deaths a year globally and most of the pollution is in the air we breathe. In all, pollution is responsible for one in six deaths worldwide.

It is a staggering figure to be sure, but oddly it has received little attention.

“There’s not much of an outcry around pollution … even though, clearly, 9 million people dying a year is an enormous issue to be concerned about,” said Richard Fuller, the lead author of the report, in an interview with The Washington Post.

What is noteworthy is that the Lancet Commission on pollution and health found that pollution claimed the lives of nine million people globally in 2015, too, “making it the world’s largest environmental risk factor for disease and premature death.”

What is clear from the report is that we are not taking pollution, especially air pollution, seriously. Air pollution causes 6.5 million deaths a year, according to the report, and the problem is growing worse. Some progress has been made mainly in reducing levels of household air pollution – more people in China and India are cooking with gas and not wood or dung- but the reduction in those deaths are “offset by increased deaths attributable to ambient air pollution and toxic chemical pollution,” the report states.

“Deaths from these modern pollution risk factors, which are the unintended consequence of industrialization and urbanization, have risen by 7% since 2015 and by over 66% since 2000,” according to the report.

It goes without saying that the air we breathe affects our lungs and our overall health. The grim reality is that lung diseases are virtually irreversible, so once a person loses their lung function, they rarely get it back.

Compounding matters is that lung disease is difficult to diagnose and is often only diagnosed in the very late stages because lungs have a remarkable capability to compensate for diseases. Often, certain parts of the lungs are already affected by diseases (like asthma or COPD caused by smoking), but the way we measure lung function today, does not detect an abnormality.

With the earth warming, more particulate matter in the air, and the loss of habitat, pollution, especially air pollution, must be taken seriously and viewed as a major threat to human health and life.

Early detection technology is paramount to detecting and treating lung diseases caused or worsened by air pollution. The way we are heading, our air quality is not getting any better. It is our lungs and society at large that will be paying an even bigger price. Adopting technology that enables early and accurate detection of lung issues will match the right treatments to the right patients.