On Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 1:30:24 PM UTC+8, David P. wrote:

99% of the world is breathing poor-quality air, WHO says
April 4, 2022, Associated Press

The World Health Organization said Monday that nearly everybody
in the world breathes air that doesn't meet its standards for
air quality. The U.N. health agency called for more action to
reduce fossil-fuel use, which generates pollutants that cause
respiratory and blood-flow problems and lead to millions of
preventable deaths each year.

About six months after tightening its guidelines on air quality,
the WHO on Monday issued an update to its database on air quality
that draws on information from a growing number of cities, towns &
villages across the globe. It now includes over 6,000 municipalities.

The WHO said 99% of the global population breathes air that exceeds
its air-quality limits and is often rife with particles that can
penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the veins and arteries, and
cause disease. Air quality is poorest in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean
and Southeast Asia regions, followed by Africa, it said.

"After surviving a pandemic, it's unacceptable to still have
7 million preventable deaths and countless preventable lost years
of good health due to air pollution," said Dr. Maria Neira, head of
WHO's department of environment, climate change and health. "Yet too
many investments are still being sunk into a polluted environment
rather than in clean, healthy air."

The database, which has traditionally considered two types of
particulate matter known as PM2.5 and PM10, for the first time has
included ground measurements of nitrogen dioxide. The last version
of the database was issued in 2018.

Nitrogen dioxide originates mainly from human-generated burning of
fuel, such as through automobile traffic, and is most common in
urban areas. Exposure can bring respiratory disease like asthma
and symptoms like coughing, wheezing and difficulty in breathing,
and more hospital and emergency-room admissions, WHO said. The
highest concentrations were found in the eastern Mediterranean region.

Particulate matter has many sources, such as transportation, power
plants, agriculture, the burning of waste and industry – as well as natural sources like desert dust. The developing world is particularly
hard hit: India had high levels of PM10, while China showed high levels
of PM2.5, the database showed.

"Particulate matter, especially PM2.5, is capable of penetrating
deep into the lungs and entering the bloodstream, causing cardio-
vascular, cerebrovascular (stroke) and respiratory impacts," WHO
said. "There is emerging evidence that particulate matter impacts
other organs and causes other diseases as well."

The findings highlight the sheer scale of the changes needed to
combat air pollution, said Anumita Roychowdhury, an air pollution
expert at Center for Science and Environment, a research and advocacy organization in New Delhi.

India and the world need to brace for major changes to try to curb
air pollution, including using electric vehicles, shifting away from
fossil fuels, embracing a massive scaling-up of green energy and
separating types of waste, she said.

The Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a New Delhi-based
think tank, found in a study that more than 60% of India's PM2.5
loads are from households and industries.

Tanushree Ganguly, who heads the council's program on air quality,
called for action toward reducing emissions from industries,
automobiles, biomass burning and domestic energy.

"We need to prioritize clean energy access for households that
need it the most, and take active measures to clean up our
industrial sector," she said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/air-quality-who-report-poor-quality-air/

Not surprise. But during Trump's tenure, he said the air is very good in US and hence not need to engage the world on that as it is in other countries but not in the US which is fresh and clean with clean air as can be seen happiness in US people and
hence to be done at all. This is a self-centered way of thinking in that pollution impaired on the people is not important to the top except from pollution reports made from the top. This is disastrous considering the US polluted air is filled from
military and domestic aircrafts burning their fuels across US and EU will be the hardest to address and be removed.

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