The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for more steps to be taken to reduce fossil fuel use, drawing attention to the fact that almost all people around the world breathe air that does not meet quality air standards. Fossil fuels, which play a role in the release of pollutants that cause respiratory and blood circulation problems, cause millions of preventable deaths every year.
WHO also updated its air quality database in a statement released on Monday, nearly six months after it tightened its guideline containing values for air quality standards. Information from 6,000 cities, towns and villages around the world was used to update the database.
Pointing out that 99 percent of the global population breathes air below air quality standards, WHO noted that with bad air breathing, particles in the air penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the arteries and veins and cause disease. According to WHO, the regions with the worst air quality in the world are the Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Director of WHO Environment, Climate Change and Health Dr. “It is unacceptable to record 7 million preventable deaths from polluted air after surviving a pandemic. Yet there is still a lot of investment being made that contributes to the pollution of the environment instead of clean and healthy air,” said Maria Neira.
The database, which contains data on two types of particles known as PM2.5 and PM10 in polluted air, also included ground measurements of nitrogen dioxide for the first time. The last version of the database was published in 2018.
Nitrogen dioxide occurs mostly as a result of fuel consumption from vehicle traffic and affects urban areas the most. Exposure to nitrogen dioxide triggers symptoms such as asthma, coughing, wheezing or difficulty breathing. This situation causes an increase in the number of applications to hospitals and emergency services. The region where nitrogen dioxide is most concentrated is the Eastern Mediterranean.
The source of the particles released into the air are transportation, power plants, agriculture, waste incineration, industry and natural sources such as desert dust. Developing countries are the most affected by this problem. The countries where particles known as PM10 in India and PM2.5 in China are the most concentrated in the world.
“Particles, especially PM2.5, have the ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, causing adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, cerebral vessels and respiration. Evidence that particles also affect other organs and cause diseases,” the WHO said in a statement. emerges,” he said.
Anumita Roychowdhury, an air pollution expert from the Center for Science and Environment, a research institution in New Delhi, India, points out that the findings reveal the huge scale of the changes that need to be made to combat air pollution.
Anumita Roychowdhury says India and other countries need to make big changes to tackle air pollution, including switching to electric vehicles, moving away from fossil fuels, accelerating green energy initiatives and segregating waste types.
The Energy Environment and Water Council, a think tank in New Delhi, has revealed that more than 60 percent of India’s PM2.5-type particle load comes from residential and industrial sources.
Tanushree Ganguly, head of the air quality program of the Energy Environment and Water Council, called for the reduction of emissions from industry, automobiles, biowaste burning and residential energy.