A new study blames pollution of all types for 9 million deaths a year globally, with the death toll attributed to dirty air from cars, trucks and industry rising 55% since 2000. That increase is offset by fewer pollution deaths from primitive indoor stoves and water contaminated with human and animal waste, so overall pollution deaths in 2019 are about the same as 2015. The United States is the only fully industrialized country in the top 10 nations for total pollution deaths, ranking 7th with 142,883 deaths blamed on pollution in 2019, sandwiched between Bangladesh and Ethiopia, according to a new study in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health. Tuesday’s pre-pandemic study is based on calculations derived from the Global Burden of Disease database and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. India and China lead the world in pollution deaths with nearly 2.4 million and almost 2.2 million deaths a year, but the two nations also have the world’s largest populations. When deaths are put on a per population rate, the United States ranks 31st from the bottom at 43.6 pollution deaths per 100,000. Chad and the Central African Republic rank the highest with rates about 300 pollution deaths per 100,000, more than half of them due to tainted water, while Brunei, Qatar and Iceland have the lowest pollution death rates ranging from 15 to 23. The global average is 117 pollution deaths per 100,000 people. Pollution kills about the same number of people a year around the world as cigarette smoking and second-hand smoke combined, the study said. “9 million deaths is a lot of deaths,” said Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Public Health Program and Global Pollution Observatory at Boston College. Read: Brick kilns threaten environment & cause health hazards in south-western Bangladesh “The bad news is that it’s not decreasing,” Landrigan said. “We’re making gains in the easy stuff and we’re seeing the more difficult stuff, which is the ambient (outdoor industrial) air pollution and the chemical pollution, still going up.” It doesn’t have to be this way, researchers said. “They are preventable deaths. Each and every one of them is a death that is unnecessary,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health, who wasn’t part of the study. She said the calculations made sense and if anything. was so conservative about what it attributed to pollution, that the real death toll is likely higher. The certificates for these deaths don’t say pollution. They list heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, other lung issues and diabetes that are “tightly correlated” with pollution by numerous epidemiological studies, Landrigan said. To then put these together with actual deaths, researchers look at the number of deaths by cause, exposure to pollution weighted for various factors, and then complicated exposure response calculations derived by large epidemiological studies based on thousands of people over decades of study, he said. It’s the same way scientists can say cigarettes cause cancer and heart disease deaths. “That cannon of information constitutes causality,” Landrigan said. “That’s how we do it.” Five outside experts in public health and air pollution, including Goldman, told The Associated Press the study follows mainstream scientific thought. Dr. Renee Salas, an emergency room doctor and Harvard professor who wasn’t part of the study, said “the American Heart Association determined over a decade ago that exposure to (tiny pollution particles) like that generated from the burning of fossil fuels is causal for heart disease and death.”

Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba), an environmentalist organisation, has staged a rally at Shahabag intersection asking the government to control and reduce sound pollution over the city area around 11 am today. President of Bangladesh Nirapada Pani Andolan Engineer Anwar, President of Debidas Ghat Social Welfare Organization Musa, President of Bangladesh Cycle Implementation Committee Aminul Islam Taposh, President of Mrittika Social Development Organization Khadija Khanam along with the leaders and members of other environmentalist organisations were present in the rally. Demanding to control sound pollution, Engineer Anwar said that "lately, loud sound has become a very common scenario on the roads of cities. Most of the drivers use weisel without any reason which causes sound pollution and damages our hearing power." Also read: Sound pollution: Govt declares 3 areas in Barishal as ‘Silent Zones’ Later he asked the government to provide due punishment to the culprits who intentionally generate sound pollution. Referring to medical science, Amirul Islam Taposh said that "if a man receives more than 60 db sound for a long time he may lose his hearing power temporarily and if he he receive more than 100 db sound for long time he may lose his hearing ability permanently." He also said that "in the busy inn of the cities almost 70-80 db sound has been generated where the limitation is set as 45 db for day time and 50 db for night. For industrial area the limitation is set as 40 db for night and 50 db for day time but the reality is, around 60-70 db sound have been generated over days and night." Also read: Khulna health hazard triggered by air and sound pollution "If government does not control sound pollution strictly, half of the people of Dhaka city may lose 30 db of hearing ability soon", referring to the specialists he said. Later, they asked the government to take steps like operating Mobile Courts on this issue, Generators, Horns and Machines that produce high frequency sound, shall not be imported, implementing More tree plantation programme, marking sound pollution producers and bringing them under strict punishment to control sound pollution and save the environment.

 

Campaigning has peaked with just over a week left for the elections to two Dhaka city corporations as candidates are doing everything to woo voters in the final days.

Unabated illegal soil lifting from at least 20 points of Gumti River in Burichang upazila is putting the embankment and river banks at the risk of erosion.