A "pandemic" of air pollution shortens lives worldwide by nearly three years on average and causes 8.8 million premature deaths annually, scientists said Tuesday.

Eliminating the toxic cocktail of molecules and lung-clogging particles cast off by burning oil, gas and coal would restore a full year of life expectancy, they reported in the journal, Cardiovascular Research.

Compared to other causes of premature death, air pollution kills 19 times more people each year than malaria, nine times more than HIV/AIDS and three times more than alcohol, the study found.

Coronary heart disease and stroke account for almost half of those deaths, with lung diseases and other noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure accounting for most of the rest. Only 6% of mortality stemming from polluted air is due to lung cancer.

The worst-hit region is Asia, where the average lifespan is cut 4.1 years in China, 3.9 years in India and 3.8 years in Pakistan. In some parts of these countries, toxic air takes an even steeper toll, other research has shown.

In India's Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million, small particle pollution by itself slashes life expectancy by 8.5 years, while in China's Hebei Province (population 74 million) the shortfall is nearly six years, according to the Air Quality Life Index, developed by researchers at the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago.

African lives are also foreshortened by 3.1 years on average, with people in some nations, Chad, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire, losing 4.5 to 7.3 years.

Among wealthier nations, the Soviet Union's former satellite states have the deadliest pollution, especially in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.