Thursday 25th April 2024
“7 million people die prematurely annually due to air pollution”, reported David Boyd, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment on June 03, 2019, two days ahead of World Environment Day.
Boyd urged world nations to beat air pollution in a bid to fill their human rights obligation.
“Air pollution is a silent, invisible and prolific killer that is responsible for the premature death of 7 million people each year, disproportionately affecting women, children, and poor communities,” said Boyd.
Source:NepalInData
But the UN Human Rights and the Environment rapporteur says that there are several success stories too.
“There are numerous success stories of drastically reducing air pollution from across the world, including China, who is hosting World Environment Day this year. These stories prove that air pollution is a preventable problem,” he added.
Boyd revealed that every five seconds, a premature death is caused by air pollution and that about 90 percent of the world population breathed polluted air.
Shockingly among the 7 million who die annually, 600,000 are children.
“There are numerous success stories of drastically reducing air pollution from across the world, including China, who is hosting World Environment Day this year. These stories prove that air pollution is a preventable problem,” said the UN expert.
Boyd added that clean air is a core component of the right to a healthy environment, along with clean water and adequate sanitation, healthy and substantially produced food, healthy biodiversity, non-toxic environment, and a safe climate.
Source: IHME, Global Burden of Disease
