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Environmental Pollution Kills One In Five
from:"Environmental pollution--it's not my problem." Is this something you've heard? Is this something you've said? Is this something you believe?
If it is, consider opening your eyes and ears, because evidence from the World Health Organization and the World Bank strongly indicates that environmental pollution is everybody's problem. According to these organizations' estimates, some 20% of premature death worldwide can be related to environmental factors.
Imagine five people you know, and then imagine one of them dead due to environmental pollution. That's not an abstract fear: that's everybody's problem. Granted, the majority of the "death statistics" are gathered in extremely poor parts of the world, most prominently sub-Saharan Africa (where these one in five deaths are almost always children under the age of six.)
"But environmental factors, that could mean anything," you may think. The WHO/World Bank evidence cites specific pollution issues that are linked to premature death. The biggest offenders are water and air pollution--unclean drinking water and unsafe clouds of toxic smoke wafting over communities--with lead-based contamination coming in a grimly close third.
The biggest offender when it comes to deaths caused by environmental pollution is respiratory infections, which cause some 4 million child deaths per year. The usual cause of these infections is indoor airborne pollution. Cook fires fill the air of a house with grease, smoke, and other irritants, which quickly sap infant health. Outdoor cook fires are no better and simply spread the problem around, compounding it with existing chemical fires from burning plastic and poisoned animals. A close second infection caused by the application of pesticides, which kills another 3.5 million adults. Malaria and poisoned drinking water round out the picture.
This isn't what we tend to think of when we think of environmental pollution--the classic image is a smokestack belching green clouds, or glowing drums of nuclear waste floating in a lagoon. What the World Bank/WHO report talks about, however, isn't about classic images: it's about the reality of life for one of the most populous continents in the world. In a thousand small ways, environmental pollution poisons the air and the water and makes life on earth impossible.
Most of us don't live in sub-Saharan Africa and many of us treat these pollution-related deaths as something abstract, distant from our own experience. Aristotle famously said that action at a distance is impossible; empathy at a distance may be equally so. But in the modern world, we're not as distant from the world of extreme poverty as we think. Unfortunately, it seems--based on statistics like this--that the only distance that matters may be the gap between wealth and poverty--the gap between water that kills us and water that keeps us alive.
Environmental Air Pollution Specific links
Environmental Air Pollution News
BP to spend $400 million in air pollution settlement - Boston Herald
 Globe and Mail | BP to spend $400 million in air pollution settlement Boston Herald Steps that BP committed to take at its Whiting refinery, the nation's sixth largest, will significantly reduce emissions of lung-damaging soot and other noxious air pollution. The deal also sets a precedent for other oil companies as the industry ... US reaches pollution agreement at BP Indiana plant BP Agrees to Precedent-setting Settlement Over Whiting Refinery Pollution Permits |
Pima County Department of Environmental Quality: Airborne particulates higher ... - Tucson Citizen
 Las Vegas Sun | Pima County Department of Environmental Quality: Airborne particulates higher ... Tucson Citizen The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality is issuing an air quality advisory due to the potential for elevated levels of particulate matter this afternoon and tonight. The dry conditions and winds are causing higher than normal levels of ... Air quality advisory issued because of smoke in Las Vegas Valley Northern Nevada wildfire leads to air quality advisory in Clark County Wildfire smoke reaches Vegas; air quality advisory issued |
Antonia's Story: Asthma and Air Quality in Mansfield - Patch.com
 al.com (blog) | Antonia's Story: Asthma and Air Quality in Mansfield Patch.com That's why Antonia, a Mansfield resident, was alarmed recently when she learned that the American Lung Association had released its annual State of the Air report and Bristol County had dropped from a D to and F for ozone air pollution. UAB initiative seeks clean air for Birmingham OUR VIEW: Cleaning Birmingham's air must remain top priority |
PennFuture, Sierra Club, and NRDC Slam EPA for Proposing a Free Pass for Toxic ... - MarketWatch (press release)
PennFuture, Sierra Club, and NRDC Slam EPA for Proposing a Free Pass for Toxic ... MarketWatch (press release) "These proposed rules sacrifice local air quality and public health, distort energy markets, and could endanger electricity reliability in our region," said Christina Simeone, director of the PennFuture Energy Center, a program of Citizens for ... |
For WA Oil Refineries, What Qualifies as Air Pollution? - Lake Stevens Journal
For WA Oil Refineries, What Qualifies as Air Pollution? Lake Stevens Journal SEATTLE - If you can't meet the requirements to regulate air pollution, try changing them. That's what plaintiffs in a recent lawsuit say the state of Washington is attempting to do. Last year, environmental groups sued the state for failing to ... |