Seven million people die from it every year diseases due to air pollutionYet it has never achieved global recognition in the same way as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and now there are growing calls from the health care community to change that.
Compared to other health problems that access billions of dollars in global funds, air pollution has a much greater impact on health, says Christa Hasenkopf, director of clean air programs at the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute (Epic).
Pollution contributes to millions of deaths every year from conditions such as heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer or pneumonia. That exceeds the In 2022, 630,000 people would die from AIDSthe 608,000 deaths from malaria in the same year and even the 1 million people die every year due to diarrhea.
NCDs are simply that; Unlike a virus, for example, you cannot contract them. Instead, they are caused by a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors. The main types are cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cardiovascular disease – heart attacks and strokes. About 80% are preventable, and all are increasing and spreading inexorably around the world as aging populations and lifestyles, pressured by economic growth and urbanization, make unhealthy living a global phenomenon.
NCDs, once seen as diseases of the rich, now have a hold on the poor. Disease, disability, and death are perfectly designed to create and increase inequality—and if you’re poor, you’re less likely to receive an accurate diagnosis or treatment.
Investment in tackling these common and chronic conditions, which kill 71% of us, is incredibly low, while the costs to families, economies and communities are staggeringly high.
In low-income countries, NCDs – typically slow and debilitating diseases – see a fraction of the money needed being invested or donated. Attention remains focused on the threats of communicable diseases, but cancer death rates have long surpassed the death tolls from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined.
‘A Common Condition’ is a Guardian series reporting on NCDs in the developing world: their prevalence, solutions, causes and consequences, and telling the stories of people living with these diseases.
Tracy McVeigh, editor
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Quick guide A common condition
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The human toll of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is enormous and rising. These diseases end the lives of about 41 million of the 56 million people who die each year – and three-quarters of them are in the developing world.
NCDs are simply that; Unlike a virus, for example, you cannot contract them. Instead, they are caused by a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors. The main types are cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cardiovascular disease – heart attacks and strokes. About 80% are preventable, and all are increasing and spreading inexorably around the world as aging populations and lifestyles, pressured by economic growth and urbanization, make unhealthy living a global phenomenon.
NCDs, once seen as diseases of the rich, now have a hold on the poor. Disease, disability, and death are perfectly designed to create and increase inequality—and if you’re poor, you’re less likely to receive an accurate diagnosis or treatment.
Investment in tackling these common and chronic conditions, which kill 71% of us, is incredibly low, while the costs to families, economies and communities are staggeringly high.
In low-income countries, NCDs – typically slow and debilitating diseases – see a fraction of the money needed being invested or donated. Attention remains focused on the threats of communicable diseases, but cancer death rates have long surpassed the death tolls from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined.
‘A Common Condition’ is a Guardian series reporting on NCDs in the developing world: their prevalence, solutions, causes and consequences, and telling the stories of people living with these diseases.
Tracy McVeigh, editor
Sunil Dahiya, a South Asia analyst at the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, said: “It is a slow poison; you are slowly moving towards death and because of the slow nature of this pandemic, we globally have not been able to respond to it as we should.”
Less than 1% of international development and philanthropic funding goes to air pollution, according to the report Clean Air Fund. Chad, Iraq and Pakistan are among the three most polluted countries.
“No one is saying that you should stop funding work on malaria and tuberculosis and instead fund work on air pollution, but what we are saying is that if you tackle air pollution you will have several non- communicable diseases (NCDs),” says Sean. Maguire, director of strategic partnerships at the fund.
Like similar mechanisms, a global air pollution fund could function on a replenishment basis, Hasenkopf suggested, funded by governments and donors.
The focus should be on reducing air pollutants in low- and middle-income countries and improving the response to NCD symptoms, according to Diane Archer, senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, life expectancy is estimated to be reduced three years due to poor air quality. Paulson Kasereka Isevulambire, from the African Research Center for Air Quality and Climate, which is researching the link between non-communicable diseases and pollution in the DRC, said more recognition of the problem is needed.
“Just like the approaches that have been applied to AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – and have been successful – so too could be the case for a global air pollution fund,” he said.
Not everyone is in favor. Peter Baker, deputy director of the global health policy program at the Center for Global Development, a non-profit think tank in the US, said so many emerging global funds are making it “administratively difficult” for governments.
He suggested the issue concerns transportation, energy and infrastructure. In other disease areas it may be a matter of providing medicines or mosquito nets, but in air pollution and non-communicable diseases the solution lies in changes “that would be difficult to manage by a single global fund,” he said.
Epic plans to launch a fund later this year to focus on data gaps. According to OpenAQ it is only 38% of countries share real-time air quality data, so policymakers don’t have the evidence they need. Raising $4 million to $8 million (£3.2 million to £6.3 million) annually from donors could make “a huge dent” in changing that, Hasenkopf said, adding that open data allows for better-informed interventions.
“This silent killer is here and the community is unaware of what is happening, including all the health effects it causes, but also decision makers do not have evidence-based data and information with which to take action,” Isevulambire said.
Liz Arnanz, policy manager at the NCD Alliance, said: “Current climate finance targets are still falling short and NCDs are chronically underfunded, so greater investment coherence is needed to ensure both agendas are advanced.”