{"id":11473,"date":"2013-11-04T11:30:49","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T11:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11473"},"modified":"2013-11-04T11:30:49","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T11:30:49","slug":"outdoor-air-pollution-classified-as-carcinogenic-by-world-health-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11473","title":{"rendered":"Outdoor air pollution classified as carcinogenic by World Health Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"air<\/a>by Melissa Roper<\/p>\n

It is not yet certain if climate change is the result of anthropogenic-sourced carbon emissions or, on the contrary, is a Sun-influenced phenomenon. As the debate on\u00a0global warming versus global cooling<\/a>\u00a0continues, results of recent research draw attention towards an equally worrying side-effect of\u00a0industry\u00a0greenhouse gas emissions \u2013 the fatal implications of air pollution on human health. Earlier this month,\u00a024 experts<\/a>\u00a0from 11 countries met at the International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) headquarters in Lyon to assess the correlation between cancer and air pollution. IARC is the cancer specialized agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), the coordinating authority for health within the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Cancer and air pollution: two widespread phenomena<\/h3>\n

The scientists evaluated over 1000 papers\u00a0analysing\u00a0the carcinogenicity of particulate matter and transport-related pollutants, and the results of the study will be published as Volume 109 of the IARC Monographs. According to the study\u2019s\u00a0Press release<\/a>\u00a0published on 17th October 2013, \u201coutdoor air pollution [is] a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths\u201d. This conclusion is the first paper to officially link the two: \u00a0both the worldwide rate of cancer and global air pollution have become alarmingly widespread phenomena in the past decades. \u00a0Cancer has become so common, that the international medical industry was revolutionized in order to address the problem in\u00a0evermore\u00a0effective ways. As\u00a0Licensed Prescriptions<\/a>\u00a0explain, it has become possible to diagnose, prevent and treat cancer quickly, in some cases even without the need of a biopsy. One of the reasons why cancer has become such a frequent problem may be that \u201cthe air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances\u201d as summarized by Dr. Kurt Straif, Head of IARC Monographs.<\/p>\n

Sources and effects of air pollution<\/h3>\n

The IARC study reports that although air pollution comes from a mixture of natural and anthropogenic sources, \u201cthe predominant sources of outdoor air pollution are\u00a0transportation, stationary power generation, industrial and agricultural emissions, and residential heating and cooking. Generally, the burning of fuels \u2013 oil, coal, gas or wood \u2013 release elements such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide,\u00a0sulphur\u00a0oxides, and metals (lead, in particular) into the air. Humans breathe in these particles, which get stuck in the lung tissue and produce breathing affections and cancer\u00a0on\u00a0the long term.<\/p>\n

South Africa air pollution<\/h3>\n

The University of Western Cape\u2019s\u00a0Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Department<\/a>\u00a0(BCB) also discusses air pollution, stating that \u201cpollution from exhaust gases of vehicles is responsible for 60% of all air pollution and in cities up to 80%\u201d, with lead being one of the most dangerous chemicals emitted by the transport industry. Combustion of coal is also acknowledged as a major source of air pollution leading to possible fatal effects.\u00a0For\u00a0South Africa in particular, one of the dangerous side effects of burning coal is acid rain, affecting stone, metal and brick elements. Highly acid rain, snow, hail or fog is produced when\u00a0sulphur\u00a0and nitrogen dioxides combine with the atmospheric moisture. \u201cCoal in South Africa is rich in\u00a0sulphur\u00a0and the power stations in the Mpumalanga Province could be responsible for acid rain over other areas of our country\u201d, explains the BCB.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as announced by\u00a0Greenpeace<\/a>\u00a0in August 2013, Witbank, a town outside of Johannesburg, has \u201csome of the world\u2019s most polluted air\u201d. This can be linked with the activity of the 11 coal-fired power stations situated across Mpumalanga. Witbank is also the place where 83% of South Africa\u2019s coal\u00a0is\u00a0mined.<\/p>\n

Improving the National Ambient Air Quality<\/h3>\n

South African air is polluted by the high\u00a0sulphur\u00a0dioxide and particulate matter concentrations resulted from power-generation and industrial burning of coal. \u00a0This urgent matter was addressed by the most recent air quality governance approach, the Air Quality Act of 2004 and the recent National\u00a0Ambient Air Quality<\/a>\u00a0Standards 2010. Key directions of the new approach include:\u00a0Decentralisation\u00a0of air quality management responsibilities; Requirements that all significant sources be identified, quantified and addressed; Setting of ambient air quality targets as goals to achieve emission reductions. The National Standards\u00a0sets\u00a0limits for the following airborne particles:\u00a0Sulphur\u00a0dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Particulate matter (PM 10 \u2013 10 micrometre diameter), Ozone (O3), Benzene (C6H6), Lead (Pb) and Carbon monoxide (CO). The\u00a0required date of compliance with the standards depends on each element, from \u201cimmediate\u201d (2010) to January 1st<\/sup>\u00a02015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Melissa Roper It is not yet certain if climate change is the result of anthropogenic-sourced carbon emissions or, on the contrary, is a Sun-influenced phenomenon. As the debate on\u00a0global warming versus global cooling\u00a0continues, results of recent research draw attention towards an equally worrying side-effect of\u00a0industry\u00a0greenhouse gas emissions \u2013 the fatal implications of air pollution … Continue reading “Outdoor air pollution classified as carcinogenic by World Health Organization”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[782,1295],"tags":[7256,3267,582,4819,7255,3542,12250,24,7254],"class_list":["post-11473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-in-depth-coverage","tag-acid-rain","tag-air-pollution","tag-cancer","tag-global-warming","tag-greenhouse-gas-emissions","tag-mpumalanga","tag-south-africa","tag-united-nations","tag-world-health-organization"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/air-pollution.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11475,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11473\/revisions\/11475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}