THE coronavirus plague now in over 60 countries is not quite pandemic as many of the world’s 195 countries remain untouched, the World Health Organization said this week. But there is one worldwide killer that could qualify as a “pandemic,” according to a study published in the International Cardiovascular Research. It is air pollution, the air people breathe, which is responsible for 8.8 million premature deaths every year.
Air pollution is mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels like gasoline in car engines and coal in power plants. According to the study by the Max Planck Institute of Mainz, Germany, air pollution is a much bigger public health risk than tobacco smoking. Scientists who conducted the study said it causes 8.8 million premature deaths annually.
This is 19 times more than the deaths caused by malaria, nine times more than HIV-AIDS, and three times more than alcohol. The worst-hit region in the world is Asia, where the average life span is reduced by 4.1 years in China, by 3.9 years in India, and 3.8 years in Pakistan. In India’s Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 200 million, air pollution cuts the life span by 8.5 years, the study said, citing the Air Quality Life Index developed by researchers of the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago.
There was one other report from researchers this week concerning another threat to humanity – the same burning of fossil fuels is causing world temperatures to rise, melting the glaciers and raising ocean levels. The study published in Nature Climate Change said this may result in the loss of half the world’s sandy beaches by the year 2100, not only affecting tourism but also threatening infrastructures against storm surge during typhoons.
Sandy beaches often serve as a first line of defense against coastal storms and flooding, researchers at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center said. Australia could be hit hardest, according to the findings, followed by Canada, Chile, and the United States. The Philippines, whose coastline is longer even than that of the US, would certainly suffer should climate change wipe out many of the world’s sandy shorelines.
The coronavirus epidemic is now hogging the headlines as it continues to spread around the world. The two research reports on air pollution and on climate change remind us that we have so many other problems, deadlier even than COVID-19, that call for even more sustained and coordinated action from the world’s nations.
