The
Lancet Commission on Pollution and
Health published its Report on October 19, 2017. The Commission is an initiative of The Lancet (one of the world’s most
prestigious and widely read medical journals), the Global Alliance on
Health and Pollution (GAHP), and the Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai, with additional coordination and input from UNEP, UNIDO and
the World Bank.
The aim
of the Lancet Commission is to raise global awareness of pollution, end
neglect of pollution-related disease, and mobilise the resources and the
political will needed to effectively confront pollution. The aim of
the Commission is also to reduce air, soil and water pollution by communicating
the extraordinary health and economic costs of pollution globally, providing
actionable solutions to policy-makers and dispelling the myth of pollution’s
inevitability.
The Commission comprises many of the world’s most influential leaders,
researchers and practitioners in the fields of pollution management,
environmental health and sustainable development.
Main conclusions of the Report
·
Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature
death in the world today. Diseases caused by pollution were responsible for an
estimated 9 million premature deaths in 2015—16% of all deaths worldwide— three
times more deaths than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined and 15
times more than from all wars and other forms of violence. In the most severely
affected countries, pollution-related disease is responsible for more than one
death in four.
·
Pollution disproportionately kills the poor and the vulnerable.
Nearly 92% of pollution-related deaths occur in low-income and middle-income
countries and, in countries at every income level, disease caused by pollution
is most prevalent among minorities and the marginalised.
·
Despite its substantial effects on human health, the economy, and
the environment, pollution has been neglected, especially in low-income and
middle-income countries, and the health effects of pollution are under-
estimated in calculations of the global burden of disease.
·
Pollution is costly. Pollution-related diseases cause productivity
losses that reduce gross domestic product (GDP) in low-income to middle-income
countries by up to 2% per year.
·
Pollution endangers planetary health, destroys eco-systems, and is
intimately linked to global climate change. Fuel combustion—fossil fuel
combustion in high-income and middle-income countries and burning of biomass in
low-income countries—accounts for 85% of airborne particulate pollution and for
almost all pollution by oxides of sulphur and nitrogen. Fuel combustion is also
a major source of the greenhouse gases and short-lived climate pollutants that
drive climate change. Key emitters of carbon dioxide, such as
electricity-generating plants, chemical manufacturing facilities, mining
operations, deforestation, and petroleum-powered vehicles, are also major
sources of pollution. Coal is the world’s most polluting fossil fuel, and coal
combustion is an important cause of both pollution and climate change.
·
In many parts of the world, pollution is getting worse. Ambient
air pollution, chemical pollution, and soil pollution—the forms of pollution
produced by industry, mining, electricity generation, mechanised agriculture,
and petroleum-powered vehicles—are all on the rise.
·
Chemical pollution is a great and growing global problem. Chemicals
and pesticides have repeatedly been responsible for episodes of disease, death,
and environmental degradation.
·
Cities, especially rapidly growing cities in industrialising
countries, are severely affected by pollution.
Recommendations of the Report
(1)
Make pollution prevention a high priority nationally and internationally and
integrate it into country and city planning processes.
(2)
Mobilise, increase, and focus the funding and the international technical
support dedicated to pollution control.
(3)
Establish systems to monitor pollution and its effects on health.
(4)
Build multi-sectoral partnerships for pollution control.
(5)
Integrate pollution mitigation into planning processes for non-communicable diseases.
(6)
Research pollution and pollution control: Research is needed to understand and
control pollution and to drive change in pollution policy.
(This
post relates to Chapters 11 and 12 of the Book. What the Lancet Commission Report says about India will be covered in the
next post.)
