By : Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, July 26, 2022
Nine million people lost their lives in 2019 due to pollution. The approximate equivalent of the entire population of Austria. It represents one in six deaths globally in a year.
These figures, according to a report by the Commission on Pollution and Health of the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, are practically the same as in 2015, when the previous investigation was carried out, which shows that not enough progress has been made.
Pollution is the largest environmental risk factor for disease and premature death in the world. It particularly affects low- and middle-income countries. Along with climate and biodiversity, pollution is one of the great crises of our time. Fighting one is fighting all of them.
While deaths from pollution associated with extreme poverty (such as household air pollution and water pollution) are down from the previous analysis, lives lost from industrial-type pollution (such as air pollution in the outside due to road traffic and chemical contamination) have increased by 7% since the last review and by 66% in the last two decades.
Of all forms of pollution, the deadliest is air pollution, accounting for nearly 75% of the nine million deaths (6.67 million fatalities). Of that figure, air pollution was the cause of 4.5 million deaths in 2019, a figure well above that of 2015 (4.2 million) and 2000 (2.9 million). The second worst contamination for life is that of water, to which 1.36 million premature deaths are attributed. It is followed by lead, with 900,000 deaths, and toxic chemicals at work, with 870,000 deaths. Even so, these data would be greater – the authors point out – if all types of pollutants could be accounted for.
To reverse this serious public health problem, the authors of the study launch a series of recommendations. Among them, the creation of an independent scientific and political group similar to the IPCC (the panel of specialists on climate change linked to the UN) is called for, as well as an increase in funding for pollution control by governments, donors independents and philanthropists, as well as improved pollution control and data collection.
In addition, they urge international organizations to approve and establish a better connection between science and policy on pollution, as is being done with climate and biodiversity.
This material from the Climatica portal was edited for clarity, style and length.
Source : https://www.climatica.lamarea.com/nueve-muertes-contaminacion-the-lancet/
Original title : 1 out of every 6 premature deaths in the world are due to environmental pollution by Eduardo Robaina.
Under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Venezuela (CC BY-SA 3.0 VE)
Photo : Image by cwizner from Pixabay
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