Majority of the world's population breathes dirty air, report says
Most of the world has dirty air, with just 17% of cities globally meeting air pollution guidelines, a report Tuesday found.
Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir analyzed data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations in 138 countries and found that Chad, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India had the dirtiest air. India had six of the nine most polluted cities with the industrial town of Byrnihat in northeastern India the worst.
Experts said the real amount of air pollution might be far greater as many parts of the world lack the monitoring needed for more accurate data. In Africa, for example, there is only one monitoring station for every 3.7 million people.
More air quality monitors are being set up to counter the issue, the report said. This year, report authors were able to incorporate data from 8,954 new locations and around a thousand new monitors as a result of efforts to better monitor air pollution.
But last week, data monitoring for air pollution was dealt a blow when the U.S. State Department announced it would no longer make public its data from its embassies and consulates around the world.
Breathing in polluted air over a long period of time can cause respiratory illness, Alzheimer's disease and cancer, said Fatimah Ahamad, chief scientist and air pollution expert at Malaysia-based Sunway Centre for Planetary Health. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around 7 million people each year.
Ahamad said much more needs to be done to cut air pollution levels. The WHO had earlier found that 99% of the world's population lives in places that do not meet recommended air quality levels.
'If you have bad water, no water, you can tell people to wait for half an hour a day, the water will come. But if you have bad air, you cannot tell people to pause breathing,' she said.
Several cities like Beijing, Seoul, South Korea, and Rybnik in Poland have successfully improved their air quality through stricter regulations on pollution from vehicles, power plants and industry. They've also promoted cleaner energy and invested in public transportation.
Another notable effort to curb severe air pollution was the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreement on transboundary haze pollution. Even though its had limited success so far, ten countries in the region pledged to work together to monitor and curb pollution from large forest fires, a common occurrence in the region during dry seasons.
Shweta Narayan, a campaign lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said many of the regions witnessing the worst air pollution are also places where planet-heating gases are released extensively through the burning of coal, oil and gas. Slashing planet-warming emissions to slow the heating up of the planet can also improve air quality, she said.
Air pollution and climate crisis 'are two sides of the same coin,' she said. ___
Follow Sibi Arasu on X at @sibi123
___
The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Telegraph
8 hours ago
- Telegraph
I'm a dementia professor. Here's how I'm reducing my risk
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Wear hearing aids My family has a history of early-onset hearing loss and I've worn hearing aids for nearly 10 years, since I was in my mid-50s. I got tested after my husband told me that my hearing wasn't as good as it used to be. I know there's a stigma with hearing aids – it makes people feel old. And even though as a doctor I know this is ridiculous, I also felt this. But it's too important to be put off. The single biggest modifiable risk factor with dementia is untreated hearing loss. A decade ago this seemed controversial, but now multiple studies show that those with hearing loss in midlife are about 40 per cent more likely to develop dementia (compared with those without hearing loss). Scans show that the brain actually shrinks – there's loss of brain mass – in those with hearing loss. The encouraging news is that the evidence to date shows that using hearing aids takes away that increased risk, as natural studies and one randomised control trial have indicated. Hearing aids do stop working quite frequently, so you do need to change batteries or charge them, and return to the audiologist for repairs. What I've noticed is that many people aren't actually aware they have hearing loss; they blame other people for muttering, or turn up the television instead, thinking it doesn't matter. But, slowly, people find themselves going out less because they can't hear well, and become embarrassed they're not catching everything. Probably the biggest stimulation for our brain is having a conversation with someone: listening and responding. Once people start withdrawing and isolating themselves, they're getting even less stimulation, and there can be a cascade of behaviours harmful for the brain. Get your eyesight checked The role that vision loss has to play in dementia has become clear more recently, and has now been added to the list of 14 modifiable risks. People who can't read more than halfway down the line of the optician's eye chart would be classified as having vision loss, and research shows that untreated vision loss makes us about 50 per cent more likely to develop dementia (than those without vision loss). I've been myopic (short-sighted) since I was a small child, so I've always worn glasses and attended optician appointments, so they pick up and correct any changes in my eyesight. Currently we don't know exactly why there's a relationship between vision loss and dementia. But in the way that hearing loss means people have less input in terms of cognitive stimulation, it's the same with vision loss. When people are restricted from walking around, or rapidly reading things, or socialising, your brain is receiving less stimulation. That's why eye tests are crucial. But it's not just about being long or short sighted; common eye diseases such as cataracts are also risk factors. Picking these up means you can be treated. 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Press and Journal
11 hours ago
- Press and Journal
Caithness mountain rescue hero helping save lives despite terminal illness says 'MBE is something to leave behind to my wife'
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Scotsman
a day ago
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