Air Pollution - A Silent Killer
Content
- The Dangers Of Air Pollution
- Our Children Are At Risk
- Traffic Pollution Claims Lives
- Minimise Your Exposure To Polluted Air
- Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
- Safely Remove Toxic Pollutants From Your Body
The Dangers of Air Pollution
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no safe level of fine particle air pollution.
Particles with a diameter of less than 10 microns (PM10) or one-millionth of a metre, including fine particles less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), pose the greatest risk to health because they can penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
The risks to human health of even low levels of ambient air pollution mainly come in the form of heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and respiratory infections.
These conditions arise from microscopic particles produced by diesel and petrol combustion engines, solid-fuel (coal, lignite, heavy oil and biomass) combustion in households and industry, as well as other industrial activities including building, mining, manufacture of cement, ceramic and bricks, and smelting.
Our Children Are At Risk
WHO states: Every day around 93% of the world’s children under the age of 15 years (1.8 billion children) breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk. Tragically, many of them die: WHO estimates that in 2016, 600,000 children died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air.
Alarmingly, when pregnant women are exposed to polluted air, they are more likely to give birth prematurely, and have small, low birth-weight children. Air pollution also impacts neurodevelopment and cognitive ability and as well as triggering asthma, and childhood cancer. Children who have been exposed to high levels of air pollution may be at greater risk for chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease later in life.
Traffic Pollution Claims Lives
Recently, researchers at Melbourne University released new modelling which shows traffic pollution could be responsible for claiming more than 11,000 lives each year, making it 10 times more likely to kill than a fatal road accident. As well as these shocking mortality rates, the study found that air pollution in Australia may cause:
- 12,210 cardiovascular hospitalisations per year;
- 6,840 respiratory hospitalisations per year;
- 66,000 active asthma cases per year.
The numbers were formulated by scaling the most recent research on New Zealand vehicle-emission impacts, the New Zealand HAPINZ 3.0 study, to the Australian population.
Melbourne Climate Futures has released a position statement, which calls for urgent action as a result of these new figures, and has been endorsed by Asthma Australia, the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) and Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), as well as the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance (ACDPA), which includes the Lung Foundation, the Heart Foundation, the Cancer Council and Diabetes Australia.
Minimise Your Exposure to Polluted Air
Personal exposure to ambient air pollution can be reduced on high air pollution days by staying indoors, reducing outdoor air infiltration to indoors, cleaning indoor air with air filters, and limiting physical exertion, especially outdoors and near air pollution sources.
Avoiding exposure to air pollutants is especially important for susceptible individuals with chronic cardiovascular or pulmonary disease, children, and the elderly.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Everything we do has an impact. From how we commute to work, to what we buy at the grocery store, our lifestyle choices contribute to our personal carbon footprint.
Carbon Positive Australia’s personal carbon footprint calculator will help you answer “what is my carbon footprint”, as well as provide you with facts, tips, and practical steps to reduce and offset your individual carbon emissions.
Based on Australian emissions factors, this user-friendly version of Australia’s first carbon calculator provides a transparent and accurate calculation which you can track over time.
CLICK HERE to learn more.
Safely Remove Toxic Pollutants From Your Body
The safest way to help detox pollutants from your body caused by exposure to air pollution, is by taking zeolite. Toxins, including heavy metals, are drawn into the structure of each superfine zeolite particle where they are captured and permanently bonded.
To learn how and when to take zeolite products CLICK HERE
References:
University of Melbourne:
World Health Organisation:
What can individuals do to reduce personal health risks from air pollution?: