Reto Riggs

A deadly virus sweeps across the globe and humanity locks themselves into their homes: Why? Because we recognise a threat to public health and decide for the benefit of all decide to take action. Meanwhile air pollution takes around 7 million people’s lives a year. We recognise that threat to public health as well. So why can’t we take initiative for clean air, as we have for limiting the spread of the coronavirus?

With the recent coronavirus outbreak, a wave of drastic and draconic new policies and measures has swept across the globe to address the global pandemic. Governments like Italy’s or France’s have declared quarantines and non-essential services have been forced to close or adjust to work-from-home options or delivery services: Our cities are reminiscent of ghost towns; only curriers, police cars and people out walking their dogs roam the streets, eyeing each other warily as they pass, practically holding their breath.

One party, who finally is able to catch a breath of fresh air amidst our abrupt slow-down, is our atmosphere. Illustratively, NASA shared some extraordinary images of NO2 concentrations over China, with similar findings in Italy.

A Brief Outline of the Air Pollution Crisis

In 2019 the World Health Organisation (WHO) went so far as to put Air Pollution on the top of their list of threats to global health. Ambient air pollution is connected to 4.2 million premature deaths annually, while air pollution in general is attributable to 7 million premature deaths per year, estimates the WHO.

According to the WHO, 9 out of 10 people breathe polluted air, which enters into our cardiovascular system, where it wreaks havoc: The WHO attributes:

• 29% of all deaths and disease from lung cancer,
• 17% of all deaths and disease from acute lower respiratory infection,
• 24% of all deaths from stroke,
• 25% of all deaths and disease from ischaemic heart disease, and
• 43% of all deaths and disease from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

to air pollution.  Affected are disproportionately the poorer echelons of society in densely populated, urban areas, who can’t afford to move away from highly polluted areas. Most affected are old people and children, whose still developing lungs can carry away lasting damage from high exposure to polluted air at a young age. The culprits are particulate matter, ozone, NO₂ and SO₂ stemming from fuel emissions, industrial combustion processes, heat and power generation but also residential cooking or heating fuels.

The Silver Lining to the Coronavirus Outbreak

To put into perspective how deadly air pollution is in comparison to the hottest news topic of the day, the coronavirus, researchers have estimated, that while the virus has taken the lives of 3’265 Chinese citizens to date, around 20 times as many lives have been saved due to the curb in air pollution. Of course that isn’t taking into account the suffering and death that will follow the economic break down, which the virus has caused. But if nothing else, it should give us pause to consider why we as a society are capable of accepting unprecedented, harsh measures and unite under a common cause to combat a deadly virus, but for years haven’t been able to address the air pollution crisis appropriately.

Why can’t we address the pervasive, far more deadly air pollution crisis in a similar manner as we are with the coronavirus?

What the ongoing crisis has taught us so far, is that drastic measures can and will be taken to ensure public health. With strict policies and regulations, ambient air pollution could be a problem of the past within a handful of years. So the issue doesn’t stem from the feasibility of the politics or of the enforcement.

A report from the World Bank from 2016 finds that the premature deaths of workers cost the global economy $5.11 trillion per year. In addition to the millions of lives saved, the economics therefore also look favourable.

The true reason is obvious: The cost of air pollution is nothing but a pile of bloody statistics which accumulate at the end of each year. Whereas we can see hospitals in Wuhan scrambling to provide care for thousands of patients and doctors in Italy having to decide which patient to save because personnel and resources can’t keep up with the amount of new cases, we glare in general apathy at smoggy images with people going about their daily lives wearing air filtering masks. Air pollution isn’t a “sexy” news topic, and keeps getting buried under more sensational news stories. In addition, no one has much to gain from ignoring the spread of a dangerous virus, whereas in the case of air pollution countless special interest groups are actively and stealthily fighting to deregulate environmental policies, while we, the general public barely recognise that there is a problem in the first place.

It’s hard to say whether humanity can learn anything from this public health crisis. I fear things will return to the way they were before the coronavirus. But if nothing else, we learned that reducing air pollution can be done, and quickly so. We just need to decide that it should be done.

https://www.who.int/airpollution/ambient/en/

https://www.who.int/air-pollution/news-and-events/how-air-pollution-is-destroying-our-health

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/781521473177013155/pdf/108141-REVISED-Cost-of-PollutionWebCORRECTEDfile.pdf

https://medium.com/@erlendkulanderkvitrud/a-moment-of-silence-for-the-7-million-souls-we-lost-to-air-pollution-in-2018-44ec8121cbe7