PESHAWAR: Japanese scientists estimated that pollution from food production in rich countries is a sure cause of two million annual premature deaths in poor countries.
The study was conducted on the G20 group, which includes 19 countries as well as the European Union, an alliance of 27 European nations. The study said that the living standard in G-20 countries is much higher than that of the average low-income countries.
Read more:
Leishmaniasis: An old disease rears its head again
Fires decimate over 815 acres of forest in KP: Assembly told
Air pollution causes 7 million deaths annually, report says
Dr Keisuke Nansai of the National Institute for Environmental Research in Japan and his colleagues discussed the production of food products and collated data for the year of 2010.
The particles of air pollution that are 2.5 micrometers in size or less are called ‘PM2.5’ in environmental terms. These particles can stay suspended in the air for long periods of time and can travel thousands of miles with the wind. As a result, they are extremely dangerous to human health. It is estimated that PM2.5 pollution is the cause of four million deaths worldwide annually, with the majority of those dying being from poor countries.
In the study, which is actually a ‘modeling study’, the experts examined in detail the sources of PM2.5 pollution and the deaths (premature deaths) from this pollution in 199 countries. The scientist found that the developed countries PM2.5 contamination could spread to neighboring countries and cause serious problems. For example, large-scale air pollution in India every year causes severe problems in Punjab.
The other side of the same problem is even more worrying: a large number of consumer goods in rich countries are manufactured in poor countries in order to reduce production costs. These consumer goods improve the living standards of citizens in rich countries, but the pollution emitted from their manufacture makes health and environmental problems worse in poorer countries.
According to the report, published in the latest issue of the online research journal Nature Communications, the “non-local air pollution” caused 1.983 million premature deaths from pollution in 2010. Most of these deaths occurred in middle- and low-income countries. Although the average age of deaths due to PM2.5 contamination was 65 years, experts estimate that this includes the deaths of 78,600 newborns and breastfed infants who lost their lives to the air pollution.