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Mozambicans among 90% of people in the world living with air pollution above WHO limit
2:46 CAT | 28 Sep 2016
More than nine out of every 10 people on the planet live in areas where air pollution breaches official safety limits – and millions of people are dying as a result, according to new research by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
An interactive map produced by WHO shows vast areas of the world are bathed in tiny particles from pollutants such as sulphate, nitrates and black carbon, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and beyond, leading to an array of deadly diseases. China, India, eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa are among the worst affected regions.
Heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer can all be caused by the particles, known as PM2.5 and PM10, which also increase the risk of getting an acute respiratory infection.
Angola is the African Portuguese-speaking country – and one of eight in the whole of Africa – with the highest atmospheric pollution-related mortality rates in the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report ‘Ambient air pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease’ released on 27 September.
Fifty of every 100,000 deaths in Angola are related to poor air quality the WHO says. Ninety-two percent of the world’s population breathes polluted air, and three million people die globally every year from causes associated with air pollution.
Using a new air quality evaluation model, the WHO confirms that more than nine out of ten humans live in places where the outdoor air quality exceeds the defined limits.
The WHO defines limits are annual average concentration of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particles (PM2.5). According to the report, all Lusophone countries except Portugal (nine) and Brazil (10) exceed the limit.
The worst-ranked Portuguese-speaking country is Cape Verde, which has an average concentration of 36 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter, when taking into account the measurements in rural and urban environments.
Equatorial Guinea has an average annual concentration of 33 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter, Guinea-Bissau 27, Mozambique 17, East Timor 15 and Sao Tome and Principe 13.
When considering only the urban environment, Angola has the worst results, with an average annual concentration of 42 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter of air, a figure that drops to 27 when taking into account rural and urban areas.
The numbers are based on measurements by satellite, air transport models and air pollution measuring stations in more than 3,000 locations, both rural and urban, and the study was developed by the WHO in collaboration with the University of Bath, UK .
The report also assessed the impact of exposure to polluted air on health, using 2012 data.
The authors conclude that, globally, three million deaths per year are associated with air pollution, including those from acute respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, ischemic heart disease and stroke.
Among the Portuguese-speaking countries, Angola has most deaths associated with air pollution – 51 per 100,000 inhabitants.
When compared with other African countries, only seven have a higher rate: Mali (60), Burkina Faso (58), Niger (57), Eritrea (56) and Benin, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo (52).
Equatorial Guinea has a rate of 50 deaths associated with outdoor air pollution in every 100,000 inhabitants, the Guinea-Bissau 47, 37 Cape Verde, East Timor 31, Sao Tome and Principe 26, Brazil 14 and Portugal seven.
According to the report, the pollutant particles consist of a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles of organic and inorganic substances suspended in the air. The majority of its components are sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, carbon black and mineral powders.
Particles smaller than 10 microns in diameter are particularly dangerous because they settle in the lungs.
Source: Deutsche Welle / The Independent
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