Pollution kills at least nine million: report
More deadly than AIDS, smoking and war; almost half in India and China
OTTAWA — Pollution kills more people around the world than war and infectious diseases, says a new report — proof, environmental lobbyists say, of why Canada needs enforceable national air quality standards.
The Lancet medical journal study released Thursday says at least nine million people died around the globe in 2015 because of pollution. Almost half of those deaths occurred in India and China, nine out of 10 were in low- and middle-income countries, the report found.
Air, soil and water pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals killed three times more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined and 15 times more people than war and violence, it concludes.
The financial cost from pollution-related death, sickness and welfare is equally massive, the report says, costing some $4.6 trillion (all figures US) in annual losses — or about 6.2 per cent of the global economy.
Canada has one of the lower rates of pollution-related deaths, according to the report, less than 50 deaths per 100,000 people. By comparison, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan — as well as at least a dozen African nations — recorded rates of more than 151 deaths per 100,000 people.
Bruce Lanphear, a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, was one of the 40 scientists who worked on the two-year study.
He said Canada needs to create better surveillance research to better explore potential links between pollution and diseases such as cancer, diabetes, respiratory illnesses and heart failure.
“Pollution is man-made and that means that we can control it and that means we can prevent these diseases,” Lanphear said.
“We spend so much on trying to develop new drugs or on treatment, and this is becoming increasingly costly. But here with pollution we know enough to act and we know enough to prevent a substantial amount of disease and death.”
Environmental Defence program manager Muhannad Malas said Canada is one of the only developed countries without national, legally binding and enforceable standards for air quality.
“What we have in Canada is basically guidelines,” Malas said.
Canada has ambient air quality standards under the Environmental Protection Act that set certain objectives for ozone, sulphur dioxide and fine particulate matter, but they are only voluntary. They also don’t include several of the most troublesome pollutants, including cadmium and benzene, he added.
Benzene is a carcinogen that the World Health Organization says has no safe level of exposure for humans.
It is also one of the chemicals that leaked without warning to residents in Sarnia’s “Chemical Valley” among nearly 500 incidents of chemical spills uncovered by a joint investigation by the Toronto Star, Global News and journalism students at Ryerson and Concordia universities this month.
There was only one public warning issued about those incidents.
Chemical Valley — a 40-square-kilometre region in Sarnia that is home to more than five dozen chemical plants and oil refineries — was singled out in the Lancet report as an “environmental injustice” for First Nations in the area.
The Lancet report also notes an environmental injustice for First Nations in northern Alberta due to pollution from the oilsands.
Malas said provincial governments have some laws in place, but they are not uniform. A national standard that can be enforced is what’s necessary, he argued.
“What we’re asking for in this case is national enforceable standards that are at least on par with (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) standards.”
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has committed to updating the Canadian Environmental Protection Act next year.