05.07.2024
Air pollution Linked To Nearly 2,000 Child Deaths A Day
Nearly 2,000 children die every day from health problems linked to air pollution, which is now the second biggest risk factor for early death worldwide. Exposure to air pollution contributed to the deaths of 9.4 million people -- around 12 percent of all fatalities -- in 2023. This means air pollution has overtaken tobacco use and poor diet to become the second leading risk factor for early death, behind only high blood pressure. Little kids are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, and the institute partnered with the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF for its annual State of Global Air report. Air pollution contributed to the deaths of more than 700,000 children under the age of five, the report found. More than 600,000 of those deaths were attributed to cooking indoors using dirty fuels such as coal, wood or dung, mostly in Africa and Asia. Over 90 percent of the deaths were linked to tiny airborne pollutants called PM2.5, which measure 2.5 micrometers or less, it said. Inhaling PM2.5 has been found to increase the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and a range of other health problems. More than two billion people cook on basic stoves or over open fires indoors, inhaling the harmful smoke. The impact of air pollution on a child’s health can even begin while the baby is still in the womb with the report claiming that each year there are around 570,000 neonatal deaths caused by dirty air.
Credit: The Daily People's Life
Credit: The Daily People's Life
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
