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According to a study published Wednesday in the journal Lancet, pollution has caused nine million premature deaths worldwide since 2019, a record that is not improving. In question, the poor quality of the air and chemical pollutants, lead in particular.
Four years after a first report, the situation has not changed: about one in six premature deaths in the world is linked to pollution, deplores the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. Pollution and waste created by humans released into the air, water and soil rarely kill directly, but cause serious heart disease, cancer, respiratory problems or acute diarrhea.
“The health effects remain enormous, and low- and middle-income countries are bearing the brunt”, summarizes the main author and co-director of the commission Richard Fuller. They account for 92% of these deaths and most of the resulting economic losses.
“Attention and funding have increased only marginally since 2015, despite a well-documented increase in public concern about pollution and its health effects”he laments, quoted in a press release.
While premature deaths linked to the types of pollution associated with extreme poverty are falling, those linked to air pollution and pollution by chemical products are increasing. “The effect of pollution on health is still far greater than that of war, terrorism, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, drugs and alcohol, and the number of deaths caused by pollution rivals that caused by tobacco”it is underlined.
6.7 million premature deaths
In 2019, 6.7 million premature deaths were attributable to air pollution, 1.4 million to water pollution, 900,000 to lead poisoning.
“The fact that the lead situation is getting worse, mainly in these poorer countries, and accelerating in terms of the number of deaths, is horrific”, worried Mr. Fuller to AFP. Exposure to the toxic substance can also cause delays in the cognitive development of children.
If mortality linked to pollution within the household (linked to the combustion of fuels or to water or hygiene problems) has declined, particularly in Africa, the forms “modern” of pollution weigh considerably more than twenty years ago. In 2000, premature deaths linked to ambient air pollution amounted to 2.9 million, and 4.5 million in 2019.
Fine particles and ozone in the air, exposure to lead, carcinogens in the context of his work, chemical pollution in the environment, are gaining ground, especially in Asia. “If we fail to develop in a clean and ecological way, then what we are doing is terribly wrong”Mr. Fuller told AFP.