Life on earth today by Emanuelle Magalhães

POLLUTION KILLS MORE THAN WAR, NATURAL DISASTERS AND HUNGER

manumagalhaes76 — 2018-03-14 19:12:58 UTC

These surprising findings are from a study published in the journal Lancet. The scientists who signed it set out to survey the impact that pollution has on human health in ways never before attempted.

Pollution "has never been the target of resources or level of attention for something like AIDS or climate change," said Philip Landrigan, director of the global health department at the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, New York, and lead author of the report .

Landrigan explained that "pollution is a huge problem because people are not seeing because they are looking at their scattered components." Aware of this, the researcher gathered data on diseases and deaths caused by all forms of pollution combined, from air to contaminated water. It was the first time this data was crossed.

manumagalhaes76 — 2018-03-14 19:31:14 UTC

manumagalhaes76 — 2018-03-14 19:31:24 UTC

manumagalhaes76 — 2018-03-14 19:53:56 UTC

In addressing the issue in a comprehensive way, the Landringan team concluded that by 2015, one in six premature deaths worldwide can be attributed to diseases due to toxic exposure. It is a higher ratio, the researchers concluded, than deaths caused by war, natural disasters or starvation.

In China, environmental causes were the second biggest cause of death, causing one in five premature deaths in 2015. In the same year, one in four premature deaths were attributed to pollution. In many other countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, North Korea, South Sudan and Haiti, one-fifth of premature deaths were also caused by exposure to pollution