Unhealthy environment claimed 2.2m lives in 2012

An estimated 2.2 million people died in Africa as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment in 2012, a World Health Organisation report says.Environmental risk factors, such as air, water and soil pollution, chemical exposure, climate change, and ultraviolet radiation, contributed to more than 100 diseases and injuries.The second edition of the WHO report, Preventing disease through healthy environments: A global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks, reveals that since the report was first published a decade ago, deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), attributable to air pollution (including exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke), amount to as much as 8.2 million of the deaths.

NCDs, such as stroke, heart disease, cancers and chronic respiratory disease, now amount to nearly two-thirds of the total deaths caused by unhealthy environments.

Infectious diseases

At the same time, deaths from infectious diseases, such as diarrhoea and malaria, often related to poor water, sanitation and waste management, have declined.

Increases in access to safe water and sanitation have been key contributors to this decline, alongside better access to immunisation, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and essential medicines.

“A healthy environment underpins a healthy population,” said Margaret Chan, WHO director-general. “If countries do not take actions to make environments where people live and work healthy, millions will continue to become ill and die too young.”

The report emphasises the cost-effective measures that countries can take to reverse the upward trend of environment-related disease and deaths. These include reducing the use of solid fuels for cooking and increasing access to low-carbon energy technologies

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