Environmental pollution contributing to 40 pc deaths worldwide

Water, air and soil pollution, along with other environmental factors, contribute to 40 percent of deaths worldwide each year, a new study by a Cornell University ecologist has revealed.

Washington, Sept 11 : Water, air and soil pollution, along with other environmental factors, contribute to 40 percent of deaths worldwide each year, a new study by a Cornell University ecologist has revealed.

The study in the journal Human Ecology revealed that 62 million deaths per year (40 percent) of all that occurred), could be attributed to environmental factors, particularly organic and chemical pollutants that accumulated in air, water, and soil.

"Water is one of the major concerns, without any question, because everyone must use it for drinking, cooking, washing and bathing," said David Pimentel.

"Water contaminated with untreated sewage and faecal matter can facilitate the transmission of diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera (bacteria that live in faeces), intestinal infections (which can compound health issues by causing malnutrition) and other diseases - all of which kill millions every year, especially children," Pimentel wrote in his study.

Pimentel said air pollution was another big killer.

The WHO ranks air pollution as the eighth most important risk in the burden of disease and holds it responsible for three million deaths each year through diseases such as pneumonia, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer.

In developing countries, indoor air pollution is a major problem because most people rely on open stoves fuelled by dung, wood, crop waste or coal to cook and heat poorly-ventilated homes.

"A little more than half of the world's households use these solid fuels for cooking, which is huge. The smoke from these stoves accumulates in abodes, exposing those inside-mainly women and children-to the hazardous pollutants released from the fuel," said WHO scientist Annette Pr�ss-�st�n.

"In some houses you enter into the kitchen, and even though you might even have a permanent opening in the house ... you can hardly see ... the wall on the other side, so thick is the smoke," Pr�ss-�st�n said.

Pimentel said more than 200 different chemicals are found in the smoke, and 14 of them are known carcinogens, adding that each year, this indoor air pollution kills 1.6 million people (or one person every 20 seconds), according to WHO reports.

On the other hand, outdoor air pollution, accounts for some 800,000 deaths per year - about half as many as indoors - because the pollutants are much less concentrated.

"Indoor air pollution can be 100 times more concentrated. There's really a big difference," LiveScience quoted Pr�ss-�st�n, as saying.

Pimentel's said the study has also shown that chemical exposures can contribute to cancers, birth defects, immune system defects, behavioural problems, altered sex hormones and dysfunctions in specific organs.

Americans of all ages carry at least 116 foreign chemicals in their bodies, including DDT, lead and mercury, Pimentel said in his study.

ANI