Dying Young Due To Air Pollution Is Not Made Up

JAKARTA - An international group of scientists published a journal in Science Advances, Friday, April 8, 2022, and recorded pollution and air quality data for 46 major cities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The observations were based on space satellites of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) from 2005 to 2018. Jakarta is one of the cities listed.

In the report, they found that 470.000 people in cities near the equator died prematurely in 2018. This is triggered by air pollution which is increasing along with the growth of these cities.

The increase in premature deaths due to air pollution in tropical cities that are developing from 2005 to 2018 is the title of the published scientific paper. These scientists analyzed the increase in fine particles in 46 tropical cities

The research, led by Karn Vohra from the Geography Department at University College London, UK, explains that they found long-term trends in fine particulate pollution in the air of each city. They found that sunlight scatters particles, so there was a 1.5 to four-fold increase in pollution in 33 cities during 2005 to 2018.

Causative factor

According to Vohra, the decline in air quality was caused by industry, household sources, and increased traffic.

"Open burning for land clearing and disposal of agricultural waste in the past has dominated air pollution in the tropics. We analyzed and found that we have entered a new era of air pollution in these cities," said Vohra.

Vohra and his team fed the data to model the health risks associated with population exposure to fine particles and premature death. The results show that 30 percent more premature deaths are caused by this pollution, and most of the cases occur in the Asian region.

"These particles penetrate deep into our lungs and have been shown to impact almost every organ in our bodies," Vohra added.

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh in the study, had the largest increase in premature deaths from air pollution. During the study period, around 24.000 people died prematurely due to air pollution. As for Indian cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Surat, Pune, and Ahmadabad with a total premature death of 100 thousand people.

Numbers in Jakarta

Jakarta experienced an increase in premature deaths due to air pollution in 2018 ranging from 0-5 percent compared to 2005.

The journal also noted that for all cities that were observed an increase in pollutants that were harmful to human health. The increase in pollutants is 14 percent nitrous oxide (NO2), 18 percent more fine particles (PM 2.5), a 12 percent increase in ammonia, and 11 percent volatile carbon compounds (VOC).

The city of Jakarta saw a decrease in NO2 along with four other cities, which showed evidence of improving air quality due to policy measures that led to a decrease in NO2 and VOC but not PM 2.5.

The condition of the cities observed is getting worse because of the pollution generated by the development of industrial activities. The study showed that across the tropics there was a 62 percent increase in the number of premature deaths related to pollution.

"We hope to encourage action to prevent premature deaths from pollution in the tropics," added Vohra.

There will be more premature deaths unless a solution is found. However, the worst impacts of air pollution on health are likely to occur in the next few decades.