Murugesu was written by Jason Arunn.
Mumbai is a city in the tropics.
Ivaylo Daskalov/Alamy.
An analysis shows that over 470,000 people died in cities near the equator because of air pollution. Without new measures to reduce the pollution, the problem could become worse as the cities grow rapidly this century.
The rise in fine particulate pollution in 46 tropical cities, including Mumbai, Dhaka and Lagos, each of which is expected to have more than 10 million inhabitants by the year 2200, was analysed by the University College London. The data was collected by NASA and the European Space Agency.
They were able to figure out the trends in fine particulate pollution in the air above each city by looking at how sunlight was scattered by the particles. There was a four-fold increase in pollution in 33 of the cities during the study period.
Vohra says the rise is probably caused by increased road traffic, refuse burning and the use of charcoal.
The team put the data into a health risk model that links a rise in exposure to fine particulate pollution to premature mortality. More than 30 per cent of premature deaths in Asia are caused by pollution, according to the results.
Particles penetrate deep into our lungs and have been shown to impact every organ in our body.
According to the research, the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, had the largest increase in premature deaths from air pollution. Between 2005 and the present, about 24,000 people may have died because of air pollution.
The problem is getting worse because the cities are growing and more pollution is being generated. There has been an increase in the number of premature deaths due to air pollution in the tropics.
Even if air quality is not changed, urban population is increasing in all cities in the tropics, so this will inevitably increase urban exposure.
I think this study gives a good overview of recent air pollution trends in rapidly growing cities across Africa, South and South-East Asia.
Satellite data and models are useful for this type of global analysis if there is no ground monitoring data. It is important to improve ground-level monitoring worldwide if we want to better track population exposures.
Science Advances is a journal.
You can get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday by signing up for our free Fix the Planet newsletter.
There are more on these topics.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
