Environmental impacts responsible for almost one quarter of all deaths, highlighting need to place environment at heart of efforts to improve human health.<\/p>\n
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Environmental degradation and pollution is estimated to cause up to 234 times as many premature deaths as occur in conflicts annually, highlighting the importance of a healthy environment to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to a new report released at the second United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA2).<\/p>\n
Environmental impacts are responsible for the deaths of more than one quarter of all children under the age of five, the report states.<\/p>\n
Healthy Environment, Healthy People<\/em> – published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, and the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions – looks at the dangers posed by air pollution, chemicals, climate change and other issues linking environmental quality to human health and well-being. <\/p>\n UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “By depleting the ecological infrastructure of our planet and increasing our pollution footprint, we incur an ever-growing cost in terms of human health and well-being. From air pollution and chemical exposure to the mining of our natural resource base, we have compromised our life support systems.<\/p>\n “A healthier planet is a rising tide that lifts all boats, including human health, but also economies and societies. By grounding development and progress in environmental health, we safeguard our own well-being. At UNEA-2, the world is focusing on pathways to ensure that the environment sustains human health rather than threatening it.”<\/p>\n The report finds that in 2012, an estimated 12.6 million deaths were attributable to deteriorating environment conditions, or 23 per cent of the total. <\/p>\n The highest proportion of deaths attributable to the environment occurs in South-East Asia and in the Western Pacific (respectively 28 per cent and 27 per cent of the total burden). The number of deaths attributable to the environment is 23 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, 22 per cent in the Eastern Mediterranean region, 11 per cent and 15 per cent in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries of the Americas region, and 15 per cent in Europe.<\/p>\n Deaths related to non-communicable diseases related deaths are rising in all regions: three quarters of people who died from non-communicable diseases in 2012 lived in low and middle income countries.<\/p>\n The report also points to the drivers of the environmental health-related impacts – including ecosystem disruption, climate change, inequality, unplanned urbanization, unhealthy and wasteful lifestyles and unsustainable consumption and production patterns – and outlines the massive health and economic benefits that action would bring. <\/p>\n Climate change is exacerbating the scale and intensity of environment-related health risks. Estimates from the WHO indicate that 250,000 additional deaths could occur each year between 2030 and 2050, mostly from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress, as a result of climate change.<\/p>\n The key environmental factors highlighted in the report include:<\/p>\n While outlining the problems, the report also showed how investments in a healthy environment can bring multiple benefits.<\/p>\n To achieve such benefits, the report recommends four integrated approaches:<\/p>\n Other reports released at the same time, to tie in with the focus on human health under discussion at UNEA-2, examines issues such as plastics, lead in paint and zoonotic diseases.<\/p>\n Marine Plastic Debris and Microplastics: Global Lessons and Research to Inspire Action and Guide Policy Change<\/em> found that in 2014, global plastic production exceeded 311 million metric tonnes, a 4 per cent increase over 2013. Between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes ended up in the ocean as a result of inadequate solid waste management. Microplastics are of particular concern. <\/p>\n One study estimated that, on average, every square kilometre of the world’s oceans has 63,320 microplastic particles floating at the surface. Marine organisms – including zooplankton, invertebrates, fishes, seabirds and whales – can be exposed to microplastics through direct ingestion of water and indirectly as predators in food webs. Potential adverse effects of microplastic ingestion include immunotoxicological responses, reproductive disruption, anomalous embryonic development, endocrine disruption, and altered gene expression.<\/p>\n Gender and Plastic Management<\/em> looked at the differing roles of men and women in plastic use and consumption, identifying women in wealthy regions as important stakeholders in reducing plastics in basic consumer goods.<\/p>\n 2016 Global Report on the Status of Legal Limits on Lead in Paint,<\/em> meanwhile, found that efforts to tackle lead in paint are advancing. As of early 2016, 70 of 196 countries worldwide (36 per cent) had established legally binding limits on lead in paint. Most of the lead paint controls have established enforcement provisions to ensure compliance with their lead limits. However, only 17 countries required that paint be tested and certified for lead content.<\/p>\n UNEP Frontiers<\/em> found that there has been a worldwide increase in emerging zoonotic diseases, outbreaks of epidemic zoonoses, a rise in foodborne zoonoses and a troubling persistence of neglected zoonotic diseases in poor countries.<\/p>\n “Never before have so many animals been kept by so many people – and never before have so many opportunities existed for pathogens to pass through the biophysical environment and wild animals to livestock and people as zoonotic diseases or zoonoses,” the report states.<\/p>\n About 60 per cent of all infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, as are 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases. <\/p>\n In recent years, several emerging zoonotic diseases hit world headlines as they caused, or threatened to cause, major pandemics. In addition to bird flu, these include Rift Valley fever, sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), West Nile virus, Ebola and the Zika virus. <\/p>\n In the last two decades, these emerging diseases have had direct costs of more than $100 billion, the report notes. If these outbreaks had become human pandemics, the losses would have amounted to several trillion dollars.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Further Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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