Unhealthy Environment Cases 12 Million Deaths

According to the World Health Organization: “An estimated 12.6 million people died as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment in 2012 – nearly 1 in 4 of total global deaths, according to new estimates from WHO.” The fix for the catastrophe is that national governments need to increase regulations on activities that cause the dangers — which is highly unlikely.

These include:

Environmental risk factors, such as air, water and soil pollution, chemical exposures, climate change, and ultraviolet radiation, contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries.

The effects are not evenly distributed by age:

Environmental risks take their greatest toll on young children and older people, the report finds, with children under 5 and adults aged 50 to 75 years most impacted. Yearly, the deaths of 1.7 million children under 5 and 4.9 million adults aged 50 to 75 could be prevented through better environmental management. Lower respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases mostly impact children under 5, while older people are most impacted by NCDs [noncommunicable diseases].

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Nor by geography:

Regionally, the report finds, low- and middle-income countries in the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions had the largest environment-related disease burden in 2012, with a total of 7.3 million deaths, most attributable to indoor and outdoor air pollution. Further regional statistics listed in the report include:

• 2.2 million deaths annually in African Region
• 847 000 deaths annually in Region of the Americas
• 854 000 deaths annually in Eastern Mediterranean Region
• 1.4 million deaths annually in European Region
• 3.8 million deaths annually in South-East Asia Region
• 3.5 million deaths annually in Western Pacific Region

Low- and middle-income countries bear the greatest environmental burden in all types of diseases and injuries, however for certain NCDs, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, the per capita disease burden can also be relatively high in high-income countries.

The recommendations for solving these problems appeal largely to actions by individual governments. Based on past experience, and the current economic need for business activities that cause pollution, that is highly unlikely.