Global forum highlights impact of unhealthy environment to human health

by Andronicus Sikula

NAIROBI, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A report from the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), held in Nairobi between May 23-27, 2016, has clearly demonstrated the linkages between environmental quality and human health and wellbeing.

Some of the broader linkages, according to the report, include inequality, unplanned urbanization, migration, unhealthy and wasteful lifestyles, and unsustainable consumption and production patterns.

In 2012, the report shows, an estimated 12.6 million deaths globally were attributable to the environment.

From a geographical perspective, the highest proportion of deaths attributable to the environment compared to the total number of deaths occurred in South-East Asia and in the Western Pacific. They respectively reported a ratio of 28 percent and 27 percent.

Sub-Saharan Africa, with 23 percent of deaths attributable to the environment, was the only region where the burden of infectious, parasitic and nutritional diseases was higher than that of non-communicable diseases, the report shows further.

"The air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the ecosystems which sustain us are estimated to be responsible for 23 per cent of all deaths worldwide. This figure increases to 26 per cent for children under 5 years and to 25 per cent for adults between the ages of 50 and 75," the UNEA report indicates.

It states that air pollution is the world's largest single environmental risk to health, noting further that some 7 million people across the world die each year as a result of everyday exposure to poor air quality.

Lack of access to clean water and sanitation causes 58 per cent of cases of diarrhoeal diseases in low and middle-income countries, the report said.

The report further noted that 50 biggest active dumpsites affect the daily lives of 64 million people. Some 107,000 people die annually from exposure to asbestos and 654,000 died from exposure to lead in 2010.

Climate change is acknowledged as a major health risk multiplier, with existing effects that are expected to increasingly affect human health. Cautious estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) under a medium-high emissions scenario indicate that 250,000 additional deaths could potentially occur each year between 2030 and 2050 as a result of climate change.

According to WHO, investments in a healthy environment has multiple benefits. For instance, benefits from eliminating lead in gasoline on a global scale have been estimated at 2.45 trillion U.S. dollars per year, or 4 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), preventing an estimated 1 million premature deaths per year.

The report holds that clean air and water, sanitation and green spaces, and safe workplaces can enhance the quality of life of people: reduced mortality and morbidity, healthier lifestyles, improved productivity of workers and their families, improved lives of women, children and the elderly, as well as other vulnerable populations, such as indigenous communities, and are crucial to mental health.

It concludes that addressing the nexus between the environment and human health by delivering on environmental sustainability can provide a common platform for meeting many of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Through multiplier effects that can accelerate and sustain progress across multiple Goals, investing in environmental sustainability can serve as an insurance policy for health and human well-being.