Millions of deaths around the world are preventable every year without any additional spending on research for treatment. And the cause has nothing to do with gun violence or war.
According to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 12.6 million people die globally each year as a result of environmental exposures. More than 8 million of those deaths are caused by exposures to non-infectious or parasitic forms of environmental risks, including air pollution and secondhand smoke.
Low- and middle-income countries in Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific and Africa account for most of those deaths. But some of the environmental risk is coming from the United States, which continues to export coal to poor countries. Why the urgency? There are steps we can take immediately to stop some of the premature deaths.
First, using products that significantly reduce air pollution exposures will help. More than 3 billion people around the world still cook and heat their homes using open fires that burn solid waste such as wood, crop wastes, animal dung and coal for fuel.
When that fuel is burned, it releases small particulates — more commonly known as soot — that contribute to premature deaths, especially in children and older people, from asthma, pneumonia, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer.
One step toward reduction in deaths is to stop supplying poor countries with products that cause environmental harms. At the top of this list are tobacco products, which not only kill up to 50 percent of those who smoke them, but these products contribute to another 600,000 deaths per year from secondhand smoke, according to the WHO.
Countries around the world exported more than $24 billion worth of tobacco products in 2014. The United States shipped more than $500 million in those products to foreign countries. But that number does not reflect the actual level of US company involvement in tobacco sales outside the United States. Instead of exporting tobacco products, over the past 20 years, major US tobacco companies have expanded overseas operations. Regardless of where they are produced, tobacco products are toxic to users and the environment.
US coal exports also contribute to deaths. With demand for coal rapidly decreasing in the United States, coal companies are pushing aggressively to open opportunities for coal exports to countries with growing electricity demands like China and India. Coal emissions also contribute to global warming.
When coal is burned — most typically in coal-fired power plants — it releases particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (the precursors of smog). Long-term exposure to these chemicals leads to multiple life-threatening illnesses, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer.
Coal power plants also emit hazardous metals and substances such as mercury, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic chemicals (PAHs). Mercury from coal power plants can lead to impairment of cognitive development in children and harm to a fetus during pregnancy.
To be sure, many poor countries suffer from energy poverty, and cheap coal helps to fill that gap. But in the face of the harms and even deaths caused, many consider coal to be an unviable solution.
The contribution to greenhouse gas emissions also cannot be ignored. Indeed, along with the health threats posed by inhalation or ingestion of the pollutants emitted by burning coal, poor countries will suffer most from the environmental consequences of climate change, including both drought and flooding.
These environmental harms are magnified by the concentration of people in poor countries living in megacities. Beijing, Delhi and Lagos are home to approximately 42 million inhabitants, nearly 17 percent of the earth’s population. In each of these cities, particulate matter caused by exhaust, industrial plants and generators suffuses the air, hindering both health and quality of life.
But that also offers an opportunity for a huge positive impact through interventions to stop easily preventable deaths caused by environmental contaminations.
The focus of the global health community over recent years has primarily been on protecting against infectious and parasitic diseases. As a result, the rate of deaths from those diseases in the last decade has decreased significantly.
The latest research from WHO provides a roadmap for making similar inroads in fighting preventable deaths caused by noncommunicable environmental risks, and moves the necessary actions from the abstract to the urgent.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $81,000 in one-time donations and to add 1250 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
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