Air pollution is the “new tobacco”, as Dr. Tedros Adhanom writes in the Guardian.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that 90% of worldwide children are breathing toxic air, from the poorest areas to UK cities.
Air pollution is responsible for several harms in children’s health: from low birth weight to poor neurodevelopment, asthma to heart disease. That’s because children are closer to the ground and also because their organs and nervous system are developing. It’s not just a matter of actual damages but also potential: acute lower respiratory infections and chronic diseases may last for a lifetime.
«Air pollution is stunting our children’s brains, affecting their health in more ways than we suspected», said Dr. Maria Neira, WHO director of public health and the environment. Even for pregnant women, the alarm rings highly: breathing dirty air causes serious damages to the fetus and the future child. The first global conference on air pollution and health in Geneva coincided with these worrying findings and all nations and cities are expected to be more committed to the problem of environmental pollution.
The simple act of breathing is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more, says the Guardian, therefore it is now more than ever necessary a strong action by institutions and citizens. The danger will grow stronger and stronger in the future if we don’t call an end to the fossil fuel era. Other bad habits that must be stopped are burning fuel such as wood or paraffin for heating, cooking, and light.
Nonetheless, solutions are possible, like «accelerating the switch to clean cooking and heating fuels and technologies, [and] promoting the use of cleaner transport, energy-efficient housing and urban planning», as Neira points out. Also take dirty vehicles off the streets and slash emissions from buildings and waste would be a decisive operation, which shows how the problem of pollution is shared by all the cities of the world, and not only by the poorest areas. In short words: we need to decarbonize our society.
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