Hard facts: Four million people worldwide die prematurely each year from air pollution in Asia-Pacific region alone.
World
Environment Day 2019 : Air pollution, both outside and inside
homes, is a silent and deadly killer responsible for the premature
deaths of seven million people each year, including 600,000 children,
according to a UN Special Rapporteur on environment and human rights.
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Reading : Business
Standard
Poor
air quality is a global public health emergency
David
Boyd, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia in
Canada, said that over six billion people, one-third of them
children, are regularly inhaling air so polluted that it puts their
life, health and well-being at risk.
How bad is the current situation?
Every
hour, 800 people are dying, many after years of suffering from
cancer, respiratory illnesses or heart disease directly caused by
breathing bad air.
Outdoor air pollution
Air
pollutants are everywhere, largely caused by burning of fossil fuels
for electricity, transportation, and heating, as well as from
industrial activities, poor waste management and agricultural
practice.
Indoor
air pollution
Women
and children, who in many less wealthy countries spend a lot of time
at home, are disproportionally affected by indoor air pollution
caused by cooking, heating or lighting with solid fuels and kerosene.
Boyd
identified seven key steps, which include monitoring air quality and
impact on human health, assessing sources of air
pollution; and making information publicly available, including
public health advisories. Programmes in India and Indonesia that have
helped millions of poor families switch to cleaner cooking
technologies and states that are successfully eliminating the use of
coal-fired power plants are a few examples of good practices. Also,
many actions to ensure cleaner air can be designed to simultaneously
reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, resulting
in a double dividend.
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