In 2012, 12.6 million deaths were attributable to deteriorating environment conditions by WHO, UNEP, Health Data, agencies 4:05pm 13th Feb, 2016   May 23, 2016    Premature Deaths from Environmental Degradation Threat to Global Public Health, UNEP Report    Environmental degradation and pollution is estimated to cause up to 234 times as many premature deaths as occur in conflicts annually, highlighting the importance of a healthy environment to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to a new report released at the second United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA2).    Environmental impacts are responsible for the deaths of more than one quarter of all children under the age of five, the report states.    Healthy Environment, Healthy People - published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, and the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions - looks at the dangers posed by air pollution, chemicals, climate change and other issues linking environmental quality to human health and well-being.    UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, "By depleting the ecological infrastructure of our planet and increasing our pollution footprint, we incur an ever-growing cost in terms of human health and well-being. From air pollution and chemical exposure to the mining of our natural resource base, we have compromised our life support systems.    "A healthier planet is a rising tide that lifts all boats, including human health, but also economies and societies. By grounding development and progress in environmental health, we safeguard our own well-being. At UNEA-2, the world is focusing on pathways to ensure that the environment sustains human health rather than threatening it."    The report finds that in 2012, an estimated 12.6 million deaths were attributable to deteriorating environment conditions, or 23 per cent of the total.    The highest proportion of deaths attributable to the environment occurs in South-East Asia and in the Western Pacific (respectively 28 per cent and 27 per cent of the total burden). The number of deaths attributable to the environment is 23 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, 22 per cent in the Eastern Mediterranean region, 11 per cent and 15 per cent in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries of the Americas region, and 15 per cent in Europe.    Deaths related to non-communicable diseases related deaths are rising in all regions: three quarters of people who died from non-communicable diseases in 2012 lived in low and middle income countries.    The report also points to the drivers of the environmental health-related impacts - including ecosystem disruption, climate change, inequality, unplanned urbanization, unhealthy and wasteful lifestyles and unsustainable consumption and production patterns - and outlines the massive health and economic benefits that action would bring.    Climate change is exacerbating the scale and intensity of environment-related health risks. Estimates from the WHO indicate that 250,000 additional deaths could occur each year between 2030 and 2050, mostly from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress, as a result of climate change.    The key environmental factors highlighted in the report include:    Air pollution, which kills 7 million people across the world each year. Of these, 4.3 million are down to household air pollution, particularly among women and young children in developing countries.    Lack of access to clean water and sanitation, which results in 842,000 people dying from diarrhoeal diseases every year, 97 per cent of which in developing countries. Diarrhoeal diseases are the 3rd leading cause of deaths of children younger than 5, representing 20 per cent of all deaths in children under five years.    Chemical exposure: Some 107,000 people die annually from exposure to asbestos, and 654,000 died from exposure to lead in 2010.    Natural disasters: Since the first UN Climate Change Conference in 1995, 606,000 lives have been lost and 4.1 billion people have been injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance as a result of weather-related disasters. http://bit.ly/1RjWCH8    May 2016    WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database (update 2016)    More than 80% of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) limits. While all regions of the world are affected, populations in low-income cities are the most impacted.    According to the latest urban air quality database, 98% of cities in low- and middle income countries with more than 100 000 inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines. However, in high-income countries, that percentage decreases to 56%.    In the past two years, the database – now covering 3000 cities in 103 countries – has nearly doubled, with more cities measuring air pollution levels and recognizing the associated health impacts.    As urban air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma, increases for the people who live in them.    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/air-pollution-estimates/en/ http://maps.who.int/airpollution/ http://bit.ly/1fOGBx0    Air pollution is deadly and hurts the world’s poor the most, by Tom Murphy.    Air pollution levels are unsafe in nearly all cities in developing countries, according to new data from the World Health Organization, which shows that more than 80 percent of people living in urban areas around the world are exposed to high levels of air pollution. It is a problem that kills millions of people prematurely each year and takes a heavy toll on the world’s poorest.    The database tracking some 3,000 cities in 103 countries shows that the air quality gap is global. Pollutants that affect the lungs and cardiovascular system, including sulfate, nitrates and black carbon are above limits set by the World Health Organization in 56 percent of cities located in high-income countries. And many of those countries saw pollution levels decline over the past five years.    On the other hand, low- and middle-income countries are nearly completely made up of cities with too much air pollution. Some 98 percent of cities in those countries have air pollution levels exceeding the WHO limit. Further, many regions are getting worse as pollution is increasing in recent years.    As is the case with other harmful environmental problems, it is the people living at the bottom who bear the brunt of the damage. Bad urban air quality raises the risk of people suffering from a stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases.    “It is crucial for city and national governments to make urban air quality a health and development priority,” said Carlos Dora of the WHO, in a statement. “When air quality improves, health costs from air pollution-related diseases shrink, worker productivity expands and life expectancy grows. Reducing air pollution also brings an added climate bonus, which can become a part of countries’ commitments to the climate treaty.”    Overall, urban pollution levels increased by 8 percent between 2008 and 2013 globally. The new analysis does have a major gap – sub-Saharan Africa. Only 39 towns and cities from 10 countries in the region are included in the database right now because there is little information on particulate matter measurements for the region. What little data that WHO managed to collect shows that sub-Saharan African countries have levels exceeding the median.    High-pollution events have shut down cities for brief stretches in recent years, particularly in Asia. The negative effects of air pollution were well known, but new research is showing just how bad it can be.    One new study connected air pollution with causing thousands of preterm births each year in the U.S. Children born too young are at much higher risk of developmental disability or death. It potentially adds billions of dollars in economic losses to an already tragic outcome for children and their families.    It all becomes more concerning in places where air pollution levels are exceedingly high. The WHO recommends that cities have no more than 10 micrograms of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter per cubic meter of air (PM 2.5). The world’s most polluted city, Zabol, Iran, has a rate of 217 PM 2.5. The world’s 10 most polluted cities have rates exceeding 125 PM 2.5, with four cities in India, two in China, two in Saudi Arabia and one in Cameroon. All of those cities are in either developing countries or oil-rich states.    The data add another layer of urgency to take steps that will reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change. An estimated 12.6 million deaths, 23 percent of all global deaths, are attributed to environment risks. The majority of which are noncommunicable diseases that are more often than not caused by the most basic thing people need to live – air.    * Tom Murphy writes for Humanosphere.    Poor air quality kills 6.5 million worldwide. (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation)    New research shows that more than 6.5 million people die prematurely every year due to household and outdoor air pollution. More than half of deaths occur in two of the world’s fastest growing economies, China and India.    Power plants, industrial manufacturing, vehicle exhaust and burning coal and wood all release small particles into the air that are dangerous to a person’s health. New research, presented today at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), found that despite efforts to limit future emissions, the number of premature deaths linked to air pollution will climb over the next two decades unless more aggressive targets are set.    “Air pollution is the fourth highest risk factor for death globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease,” said Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health in Vancouver, Canada. “Reducing air pollution is an incredibly efficient way to improve the health of a population.“    For the AAAS meeting, researchers from Canada, the United States, China and India assembled estimates of air pollution levels in China and India and calculated the impact on health.    Their analysis shows that the two countries account for 55 per cent of the deaths caused by air pollution worldwide. About 1.6 million people died of air pollution in China and 1.4 million died in India in 2013.    In China, burning coal is the biggest contributor to poor air quality. Qiao Ma, a PhD student at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, found that outdoor air pollution from coal alone caused an estimated 366,000 deaths in China in 2013.    Ma also calculated the expected number of premature deaths in China in the future if the country meets its current targets to restrict coal combustion and emissions through a combination of energy policies and pollution controls. She found that air pollution will cause anywhere from 990,000 to 1.3 million premature deaths in 2030 unless even more ambitious targets are introduced.    “Our study highlights the urgent need for even more aggressive strategies to reduce emissions from coal and from other sectors,” said Ma.    In India, a major contributor to poor air quality is the practice of burning wood, dung and similar sources of biomass for cooking and heating. Millions of families, among the poorest in India, are regularly exposed to high levels of particulate matter in their own homes.    “India needs a three-pronged mitigation approach to address industrial coal burning, open burning for agriculture, and household air pollution sources,” said Chandra Venkataraman, professor of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in Mumbai, India.    In the last 50 years, North America, Western Europe and Japan have made progress to combat pollution by using cleaner fuels, more efficient vehicles, limiting coal burning and putting restrictions on electric power plants and factories.    “Having been in charge of designing and implementing strategies to improve air in the United States, I know how difficult it is. Developing countries have a tremendous task in front of them,” said Dan Greenbaum, president of Health Effects Institute, a non-profit organization based in Boston that sponsors targeted efforts to analyze the health burden from different air pollution sources. “This research helps guide the way by identifying the actions which can best improve public health.”    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/air-pollution-rising/en/ http://www.healthdata.org/ http://www.who.int/topics/poverty/en/ http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/ Visit the related web page
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