UNEP: Zika highlights environment-health linkages

Just like Ebola, the spread of the Zika virus has sent a strong signal to the international community on the need to increase attention to linkages between environment and health.

The list of health conditions that could be linked to environmental pollution and degradation is long and growing, including skin cancer, lung cancer, asthma, lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, malaria, ebola and Zika, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

“There is a growing awareness that humans, through their intervention in the environment, play a vital role in exacerbating or mitigating health risks,” UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said.

Steiner addressed the UNEP’s Committee of Permanent Representatives, a group of delegates representing more than 140 countries and major organizations, which gathered at the agency’s Nairobi headquarters to prepare for the United Nations Environment Assembly, the world’s highest- level decision- making body on the environment, in May.

He cited data from the World Health Organization, which has found that 23 percent of all premature deaths around the world are attributed to environmental factors. Among children, that figure rises to 36 percent.

“Every year, nearly seven million people die because they are exposed to indoor and outdoor air pollution, from power generation, cook stoves, transportation, industrial furnaces, wildfires or other causes,” Steiner said.

“We are eating into an ecological infrastructure that not only sustains us, but protects us. The fallout from the footprint of human activity in the 21st century seems to grow every year,” Steiner said.

The UNEP chief pointed out that over two billion people live in water-stressed areas, 1,000 children die every day from water-borne diseases and 42 million life years are lost every year due to natural disasters.

There is strong evidence that international action to protect the environment can have strong, positive impacts on human health, he said.

The Montreal Protocol, which took effect in 1989, points to nearly 100 substances that deplete the ozone layer removed from circulation.

Because of that progress, some two million cases of skin cancer will be prevented before 2030. And the removal of lead from fuel is already preventing over one million premature deaths each year, the UNEP said.

A report on how the environment impacts human health will be launched at the UN Environment Assembly and will be the subject of discussion among ministers who are set to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The UNEP said a healthy environment presents opportunities for a healthier society and brings economic benefits to all.

The phasing out of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons should result in a cumulative $1.8 trillion in global health benefits by 2060, it added.

Eliminating lead in gasoline on a global scale would also boost global gross domestic product by four percent, while the return on investment in water and sanitation services is expected to be $5 to $28 per dollar invested, the UNEP said. –