Every day, many people go about their daily lives oblivious to the silent and sometimes invisible danger that stalks. Be it emissions from cars, teargas, dust, industrial sources, pollen or waste burning.
Recent reports from the 5th edition of the State of Global Air (SoGA) unravel how air pollution is having an increasing impact on human health, becoming the second leading global risk factor for death.
Additionally 8.1 million deaths globally in 2021 have been attributed to air pollution according to research by the Health Effect Institute.
This has resulted in increased cases of premature birth, low birth weight, asthma and lung diseases with UNICEF finding that children under five years old are more vulnerable.
In 2021, exposure to air pollution was linked to more than 700,000 deaths of children under five years old, making it the second-leading risk factor for death globally for this age group, after malnutrition.
A report by SoGA further indicates that a staggering 500,000 of these child deaths were linked to household air pollution due to cooking indoors with polluting fuels, mostly in Africa and Asia.
This has led to the most dangerous unnoticed air particular matter commonly referred to as Particular Matter. There are those referred to as PM10 with a diameter of 10 microns or less (PM10) that are easily inhalable into the lungs and mostly found outdoors.
Then there is the fine particulate matter PM2.5 with particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter which also comprises a portion of PM10.
The oblivious danger with PM2.5 is that they are tiny and can easily be inhaled leading to adverse long-term respiratory diseases.
Some of the indoor sources of such particles include cooking fumes, firewood, charcoal burning, and candles especially with the new sensation of scented candles.
Outside sources are unlimited resulting in PM2.5 and PM10, ranging from pollen, fragments of bacteria, exhaust fumes from vehicles, industrial fumes, dust from construction sites, teargas resulting from continuous protests and the list goes on and on.
Some of the alarming key points from the State of Global Air 2024 reports show that
- Air pollution is the second leading risk factor for death after malnutrition in the African Union, resulting in 1.2 million deaths in 2021.
- Seven of the top ten countries in the world that suffer from the highest fine particle air pollution (PM2.5) exposures are found on the continent.
- The air pollution-linked death rate in children under the age of five in East, West, Central and Southern Africa is 100 times higher than their counterparts in high-income countries.
For the first time, this year’s report includes exposure levels and related health effects of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), including the impact of NO2 exposures on the development of childhood asthma.
Traffic exhaust is a major source of NO2, which means densely populated urban areas, particularly in high-income countries, often see the highest levels of NO2 exposure and health impacts.
Dr. Pallavi Pant, HEI’s Head of Global Health who oversaw the SoGA report release says “This new report offers a stark reminder of the significant impacts air pollution has on human health, with far too much of the burden borne by young children, older populations, and low- and middle-income countries,” said “This points sharply at an opportunity for cities and countries to consider air quality and air pollution as high-risk factors when developing health policies and other noncommunicable disease prevention and control programs.”
Some of the recommendations being proposed in the report include, installing air pollution monitoring networks, implementing stricter air quality policies, or offsetting traffic-related air pollution by moving to hybrid or electric vehicles, are all have measurable impacts on pollution and improve public health.
In Kenya, despite having air quality regulations under the National Environment Management Authority, air pollution levels have continued to rise especially in urban areas with the citizenry then calling for implementation of the regulations.
The writer is an Environment, Science, Law and Human Interest journalist at KBC
