Forurening koster årligt 8,4 millioner mennesker livet, og er dermed den største dræber i verden. Dødsfald forårsaget af dårligt miljø er særligt slemt i u-lande, men det bliver ikke prioriteret højt i forhold til udviklingsmål, fremgår det af ny undersøgelse.
NEW YORK, Friday, June 13, 2014: The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) has released a new analysis of data that points to pollution as the largest factor in disease and death in the developing world, killing more than 8.4 million people each year.
But pollution has a low priority in the current draft of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the U.N.’s new plan for development assistance for the next 15 years.
The analysis, based on new data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and others, determine that 7.4 million deaths were due to pollution sources from air, water, sanitation and hygiene.
WHO figures released in May 2014 count deaths from outdoor and indoor air pollution at 6.58 million; water contamination, lack of sanitation and hygiene at 842,000.
The additional analysis by GAHP attributes an additional 1 million deaths to toxic chemical and industrial wastes from large and small producers in formal and informal sectors of economies in poor countries.
The total number of deaths, 8.4 million, is largest death factor in the world. In fact, pollution causes almost three times more deaths than malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined (1.5 million deaths from HIV; 600,000 from malaria; and 900,000 from tuberculosis).
“There is a reason why pollution is sometimes called the invisible killer,” says Richard Fuller, President of Pure Earth/Blacksmith Institute.
“While it is the single largest risk factor, unfortunately, its impact is difficult to track because health statistics measure disease, not pollution.”
Fuller adds, “Pollution causes diseases like cancers, lung infections, and heart disease amongst others. Hospitals don’t measure what caused those diseases. But contaminated water soil and air results in millions of additional diseases and deaths. These are deaths we can avoid, if we prioritize addressing pollution.”
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