Background: Industrial pollution is considered to be a detrimental factor for human health. This study, therefore, explores the link between health status and industrial pollution for the top 20 industrialised countries of the world.Methods: Crude death rate is used to represent health status and CO₂emissions from manufacturing industries and construction, and nitrous oxide emissions are considered to be indicators of industrial pollution. Using annual data of 60 years (1960–2019), an unbalanced panel data estimation method is followed where (Driscoll, J. C. et al. Rev Econ Stat, 80, 549–560, 1998) standard error technique is employed to deal with heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence problems.Results: The research findings indicate that industrial pollution arising from both variables has a detrimental impact on human health and significantly increases the death rate, while an increase in economic growth, number of physicians, urbanisation, sanitation facilities and schooling decreases the death rate.Conclusions: Therefore, minimisation of industrial pollution should be the topmost policy agenda in these countries. All the findings are consistent theoretically, and have empirical implications as well. The policy implication of this study is that the mitigation of industrial pollution, considering other pertinent factors, should be addressed appropriately by enunciating effective policies to reduce the human death rate and improve health status in the studied panel countries.

Global warming has become the main concern in the current world; increased CO₂ emissions are believed to be the main reason for this climate change. Therefore, this study investigates the impacts of energy consumption, economic growth, financial development, and international trade on the CO₂ emissions of 17 Asia–Pacific countries. Using unbalanced panel data for 61 years (1960–2020), the Driscoll and Kraay’s standard error and panel-corrected standard error (PCSE) models are employed to observe the effect of the studied variables on the CO₂ emissions. The obtained results reveal that energy consumption, financial development, economic growth, and international trade have adverse effects on the environment of the panel countries by increasing the CO₂ emissions, whereas the square of economic growth reduces it, and results eventually confirm the evidence of the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Bidirectional causality is found between international trade and CO₂ emissions, and unidirectional causal association from CO₂ emissions to energy consumption and economic growth is also revealed. To maintain sustainable economic growth and to improve environmental quality, an increase in green energy consumption is being recommended.