World's Biggest Environmental Health Risk With 7 Million Deaths Per Year ~ Friendly Eco Might

Sunday, 6 April 2014

World's Biggest Environmental Health Risk With 7 Million Deaths Per Year


Air Pollution

The World Health Organization (WHO) presented an account last year pointed out that air pollution had killed more mankind than AIDS and Malaria. These were the figures of 2010, which was new data available at that time. But 2012 data seems even worse than before.

Dr. Maria Neira, the Director of WHO says that,

"The menaces from air pollution are significantly higher than formerly thought, especially heart diseases and strokes. This evidence can prove that intensive action need to be taken to clean the air we breath."
Indoor Pollution

It was found that the outdoor air pollution took away the lives of 3.7 million people worldwide in the year 2012. The indoor air pollution, caused by cooking on coal and biomass, killed 4.3 million people in 2012. The WHO, approximately found that, in 2012, 7 million people were dead from air pollution in total.

It's not the question of money, as health costs and air pollution is for the long term.

Here is the health impact for outdoor and indoor air pollution:

Diseases that are caused by outdoor air pollution:

  • 40% were heart related diseases
  • 40% were strokes
  • 11% were chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD)
  • 06% was lung cancer
  • 03% were due to acute lower respiratory infections caused in children
Diseases that are caused by indoor air pollution:
  • 34% were strokes
  • 26% were heart related diseases
  • 22% were chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD)
  • 12% were lower respiratory infections caused in children
  • 06% was lung cancer
What measures can be taken?

To protect ourselves from air pollution, all we need to do is to replace the inefficient stoves used in poor countries with better ones such as . Countries like China can cut down pollution in coal plants polluted water bodies leading to (which even cause ). These are the low hanging fruits which can make a big difference. So, plant more and more trees as recent studies found that they can filter the urban air pollution than initially thought.









 


Tags: air pollution, measures to control air pollution, world health organization, global warming, heart diseases, reasons for air pollution, how global warming affects environment, air pollution effects, how to prevent air pollution

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About Author

Author

Somanath Yadavalli

He is the founder of Friendly Eco Might and professionally a software engineer. He has a Bachelor's degreee in Electronics and Communication from The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, India. He is managing several blogs from his own living room and spreading the word for saving our planet Earth. Read more...

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