The European Union's Environment Agency (EEA) said on Monday that air pollution is still the cause of more than 1,200 premature deaths in Europe every year , while air pollution causes chronic diseases later in life. The risk of getting diseases is increasing.
According to the French news agency AFP, the European Union's Environmental Agency conducted research on this issue in more than 30 countries, including 27 EU countries.
It concluded that despite recent improvements, 'baseline air pollution levels in many European countries exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines,' particularly in Central Eastern Europe and Italy.
The report did not include major industrialized countries such as Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. According to the report, the total number of child deaths in the continent could be higher.
The Environment Agency announced in November last year that 238,000 people died prematurely in 2020 due to air pollution in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey in addition to the European Union.
The Environment Agency said: 'Air pollution is causing more than 200 premature deaths each year in people under the age of 18 in Europe and significantly increases the risk of disease in later life.'
For the first time, the agency's report focuses specifically on children. According to the agency: 'Although the number of premature deaths in this age group is lower than the total number of European population according to the annual EEA estimates, the deaths at a young age are of future talent (national ) shows the loss. This is accompanied by a major problem of chronic disease in childhood and later life.'
The report urges authorities to focus on improving air quality in schools, nurseries and playgrounds, public transport.
"After birth, air pollution increases the risk of several health problems, including asthma, reduced lung function, respiratory infections and allergies," the report notes.
Poor air quality can 'exacerbate' chronic diseases such as asthma, which affects up to nine percent of children and adults in Europe. At the same time, the risk of certain chronic diseases increases later in adulthood.
According to the statistics released on Monday, 97 percent of the urban population in 2021 faced the problem of substandard air and this situation is not in line with the recommendations set by the WHO.
The EEA stressed last year that the EU is on track to meet its target of a 50% reduction in premature deaths by 2030 compared to 2005.
In the early 1990s, fine particulate matter in the air caused about one million premature deaths annually in the 27 countries of the European Union. This number decreased to 431 thousand in 2005.
The WHO says the situation in Europe looks better than in most parts of the world. The agency blames air pollution for 7 million deaths worldwide each year. Almost as many deaths are caused by smoking or poor diet.
Thousands of deaths are associated with children under the age of 15.
It took until September 2021 to reach an agreement to tighten the limits set for major pollutants in 2005.
In Thailand alone, where toxic smog has engulfed parts of the country, health officials said last week that 2.4 million people have been hospitalized for air pollution-related medical problems since the start of the year.
Fine particles, mainly from cars and trucks, can get into the lungs. They are ranked among the worst air pollutants, followed by nitrogen dioxide and ozone.
Pakistan: 'Severe' increase in malaria cases due to climate disasters
Ahead of World Malaria Day on April 25, malaria infections and deaths have increased 'precipitously' due to severe weather events in Malawi and Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization.
According to the French news agency AFP, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Peter Sands, says that there have been four cases of malaria in Pakistan after a third of the country was submerged due to the devastating floods last year. It increased to 16 lakhs.
Peter Sands, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told AFP in an interview that Cyclone Freddie in Malawi in March brought as much rain in six days as it had in six months. There should have been an increase in cases there as well.
"What we have seen in places like Pakistan and Malawi is real evidence of the impact that climate change is having on the malaria epidemic," he said.
"So you have these extreme weather events, whether it's floods in Pakistan or cyclones in Malawi, they result in a lot of standing water (in places)."
"And we saw a very rapid increase in malaria morbidity and mortality in both places," he said, a day before World Malaria Day on April 25.
Sands said World Malaria Day is an opportunity to "generally celebrate the progress we've made" in ending the disease. But this year it's time to be 'watchful'.
He said that the weather disasters resulting from climate change showed that now is the time to get rid of them.
"If malaria is going to get worse because of climate change, we need to act to push it back now while we can eliminate it," he said.
In both countries, Pakistan and Malawi, after flood water levels receded, pools of water remained, which became ideal breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes .
Sands said some progress has been made in the fight against malaria, but noted that a child still dies every minute from the disease.
The WHO said in 2021 that there are an estimated 247 million cases and 619,000 deaths worldwide due to malaria.
In a scientific breakthrough, more than 1 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi were given the RTS, S vaccine by British pharmaceutical giant GSK last year.
Another vaccine is R21/matrix. M, which was developed by Oxford University in the UK, was approved for use in Ghana earlier this month. For the first time it has received regulatory clearance anywhere in the world.
But Sands, the fund's executive director, warned that vaccines should not be seen as a 'silver bullet' - a magic solution.
Vaccines have limited disease-fighting potential due to cost and difficulty in large-scale use compared to routine diagnostic and treatment infrastructures.
Children under five and pregnant women are at greatest risk of malaria, whose deaths are largely due to delayed diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
According to Sands: 'It's all about services that can provide diagnosis and treatment... that means you need community health workers in every village who actually have the equipment to test and treat. .
"And we need to make sure that this country's health system is made more resilient to these kinds of shocks (because) what we see is a huge destruction of precious medical equipment, drugs and treatment facilities." Is.'
Sands said countries that face the greatest risk from climate change have "a serious problem with malaria."
"These problems go hand in hand, so we are very concerned that countries with high malaria prevalence are also countries that are affected by extreme weather events as a result of climate change," he added.
A Russian endocrinologist explains why it is not permissible to eat fruits on an empty stomach when losing weight
It is extremely undesirable for those who want to lose weight to eat fruits in the evening, since at this time a person has the highest level of insulin activity.
Everything sweet that one eats at this time greatly speeds up the fat formation process.
Zukra Pavlova, an endocrinologist, spoke about this in an interview with the Russian newspaper "Rossiyskaya Gazeta".
In addition, if you eat fruits on an empty stomach, it also leads to a rapid rise in blood sugar. "This energy carrier will be used to build adipose tissue. Moreover, when fructose is present in large amounts in our blood, it greatly increases the need to eat after a short period of time, ie after an hour or two," she said.
The Russian nutritionist, Kristina Vinogradova, had previously referred to drinks that should not be taken on an empty stomach, including alcoholic beverages, tea, coffee, and soft drinks.
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