Do You Know Most Of Us Breathe Unsafe Air? What Can We Do About It? – CleanTechnica

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All too often at this time in which we live each of us is asked to take responsibility for our own carbon footprint. We’re told to cut back on our plastic consumption, but it’s nearly impossible to buy any food today without some plastic packaging or components. We want to power our homes with renewable energy, but state governments like those in Florida repress clean energy conversions. We want to buy affordable electric vehicles, but Big Auto needs to figure out how to make it profitable for themselves first. And most of the world now breathes unsafe air — what’s next? Will we be told that it’s on us as individuals to figure how to filter particulate matter out of our home and work environments?

The answer to that question is complex. On a universal scale, governments need to help everyday citizens to fight unsafe air by collaborating across borders, sectors, and silos. Yes, the most efficient way to reduce air pollution is through collective investments of time, resources, and efforts. Governments have an economic as well as humanitarian rationale to address air pollution.

But so do individuals have the opportunity to fight unsafe air. We can forge first barriers to air pollution as we advocate for governments to mount defenses against the sources of air pollution around the world.

Breathing unsafe air can affect our physical wellbeing at every stage of life and can lead to numerous health complications. Any time humans are exposed to high levels of ambient air pollution, tiny and invisible particles of pollution penetrate deep into our lungs, bloodstream, and bodies. These pollutants are responsible for about one-third of deaths from strokes, chronic respiratory diseases, and lung cancer as well as one-quarter of deaths from heart attacks.

Air pollution disproportionately affects women, children, and older persons. It also has a negative impact on ecosystems.

Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) are among those most linked with both health effects and near-term warming of the planet, and they persist in the atmosphere for as little as a few days or up to a few decades. Some air pollutants, such as black carbon, methane, and ground-level ozone, are short-lived and are responsible for a significant portion of air pollution-related deaths. These pollutants have deleterious impacts on crops and associated food security, too, so their reduction has co-benefits for the climate.

Government Have an Ethical Responsibility to Focus on Unsafe Air

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, relates how 99% of humanity breathes polluted air, which leads to an estimated 8 million premature deaths — including more than 700,000 children under five. “Pollution is also choking economies and heating up our planet, adding fuel to the fire of the climate crisis,” the Secretary General states. “Yet pollution is a silent killer that can be stopped.”

Guterres outlines how investing in clean air requires actions by both government and businesses — “to phase out fossil fuels, strengthen air quality monitoring, enforce air quality standards, boost renewable energy, transition to clean cooking, build sustainable transport and sustainable waste management systems, clean up supply chains, and reduce harmful emissions, including methane.”

Moreover, the Secretary General emphasizes, “It is also critical to put a price on carbon.”

Unsafe air is a very serious matter. It poses the biggest environmental health risk of our time. Unsafe air elevates the effects of climate change, limits farm productivity, and increases the financial burden on communities. Our leaders have a responsibility to protect our atmosphere and ensure healthy air for all.

Аir pollution is one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally. Unless governments commit to aggressive intervention, the number of premature deaths resulting from ambient air pollution is estimated to be on track to increase by more than 50% by 2050.

Plans at the governmental level must be designed to improve air quality rather than to present stop-gap measures that merely minimize the effects of pollution.

International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies

On Saturday, September 7, International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies made transparent how, by tackling air pollution proactively, people around the globe can achieve transformative change and begin the journey to secure healthy air for all. The UN-based day of activities draws special attention to how governments can improve air quality and municipal and other waste management — all by 2030.

UN member states recognize the need to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from pollution — hazardous chemicals contribute to air, water, and soil pollution and contamination and have adverse per capita environmental impact effects. The international community sees a reciprocity in improving air quality, as it can enhance climate change mitigation, and climate change mitigation efforts can improve air quality.

Investing in clean air, the UN argues, saves lives, combats climate change, strengthens economies, builds fairer societies, and advances the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which outlines a road map to achieving sustainable development, environmental protection, and prosperity for all, accepts that air pollution abatement is important to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Local Action to Highlight the Need to Reduce Unsafe Air

Forbes has reported about a fascinating way that a community contributed to cleaner air efforts on one of London’s most congested streets: Euston Road.

An anti-toxin mural sucks pollution from the air using a specialist paint coating. The coating can reduce nitrous oxide levels in the atmosphere by up to 73% when applied to concrete and brick. The CleanAir paint by Resysten technology breaks down pollutants into harmless salts that are found naturally on earth, which are then blown away with the weather.

The environmental charity Global Action Plan for Clean Air Day launched a companion online petition in addition to the mural, calling on the UK government to make walking, wheeling, and cycling safer and to ensure that everyone can access reliable, affordable, and efficient public transportation.

Global Action Plan’s head of campaigns for clean air, Tessa Bartholomew-Good, said the aim is to “empower people to use the power of their voice” to call for wider, systematic changes around air pollution. Public support for UK government action on air pollution has increased over the past five years: 93% now believe that tackling air pollution should be a priority for government ministers. In 2018, that number was a mere 71%.

“We are focusing on issues where we think solutions are the most tangible,” added Bartholomew-Good. “It’s about giving people more choices to travel sustainably and that are good for their health, good for the planet, and decrease air pollution at the same time.”

Individual Efforts to Reduce Personal Exposure to Air Pollution

Air Aware Labs is a company that wants to bring health benefits to everyone. Their first product, AirTrack, is designed for people exercising outdoors. That’s because when humans are outdoors, our lungs are working the hardest, and we inhale the most air. AirTrack can help us to understand and reduce our exposure to air pollution. Its personalized dashboard is well-suited to elite athletes, as their performance is directly affected when air pollution is higher.

Louise Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Air Aware Labs, explained to CleanTechnica why her company decided to launch their new AirTrack product on the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. “It is an important day to raise awareness that 99% of the world’s population breathe unsafe air,” she says, noting, “it can help everyone find cleaner routes and times of the day to undertake outdoor activities.”

Thomas told us that she spent the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies cycling with British doctors. Their trek wasn’t leisurely, however. They were visiting locations important to Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, the 9-year-old Londoner who was the first to have air pollution listed on her death certificate.

The team was part of a research mission to determine how unsafe air contributed to the child’s death.