> At present, outdoor air pollution kills in excess of 3 million people every year, and automobile exhaust is a significant part of the problem.
Are you talking about this bit?
> the harmful nitrogen oxides emitted by Volkswagen’s affected diesel vehicles – which the US Environmental Agency claims were 40 times higher than the legal level – could be responsible for as many as 106 deaths in the US between 2009 and 2015.
That's the US, where diesel is not as common as Europe.
Your link says that:
> From a global perspective, the actual death toll could be much higher.
http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-relea...
Some percebtage by car, of which some percentage by diesel cars, of which some are wv, of which some have defeat devices.
Edit: sorry totally misread parent post
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vw-pollution-footprint...
http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-estimate-the-death-to...
while pollution will affects almost everyone on earth, the cumulative effect is not that much and pollution is not a major cause for deaths to begin with
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.wrapper.ENVHEALTH3?lang=en...