HOW SAFE IS AIR WE BREATH IN SRI LANKA?
Theme for the World Environment Day 2018 was “Beat Plastic Pollution”. Now we are moving to another theme in 2019 which is “Beat Air Pollution”. Its not a bad idea to remind people that we are in multiple environmental crisis.Global heating due to burning of fossil fuel such as coal and gasoline is yet an unbeatable task. The climate catastrophe is already rioting against the human population but all life forms are in a real mess due to this man made crisis.
Meanwhile indoor pollution is equally dangerous to human population expecially for the poor.
According to the United Nations, approximately 7 million people worldwide die prematurely each year from air pollution, with about 4 million of these deaths occurring in Asia-Pacific. Air pollution costs the global economy $5 trillion every year in welfare costs. Further, ground-level ozone pollution is expected to reduce staple crop yields by 26 per cent by 2030.
World Health Organisation (WHO) claims that 92% of the people in the World do not breathe clean air and around 8 million deaths annually can be attributed to air pollution with 4.3 million deaths from indoor air pollution and 3.7 million deaths from outdoor air pollution. WHO recognizes that air pollution is a critical risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), causing an estimated one-quarter (24%) of all adult deaths from heart disease, 25% from stroke, 43% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29% from lung cancer.
In Sri Lanka, over 45% of the admissions of children to hospitals are due to air pollution. It has also been estimated that 7,792 people died from air pollution-related disease and the rate is increasing each year. The top illness caused by air pollution is Ischemic heart disease.
Outdoor Air Pollution
In 2010, Evaluation and Research Unit, National Institute of Health Sciences, Ministry of Health, Kalutara, Sri Lanka concluded that “air pollution may be considered a neglected public health problem in Sri Lanka. (Y L Nandasena et. al, 2010) The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) has data upto 2012, however, National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) measure the ambient air quality at Colombo, Gampaha, Horana, Kaluthara, Rathnapura, Kandy, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura areas since 2012 with the support of the Vehicle Emission Testing (VET)Trust Fund of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. Although there are some criticisms, VET programme is responsible for cleaning urban air in Sri Lanka.
When lawyer and environmental activist Lalanath De Silva filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court stating that the Minister of Environmental Affairs had not taken steps to control the air pollution in Colombo and that he and his family were deprived of the basic right to breathe clean air, the Supreme Court ordered that the Minister bring in these regulations to effect by June 2000. Although the regulations were gazetted, it was not effective until 2008 due to the delay by corrupt politicians.
However, increased of number of vehicles on the streets, traffic congestions, increased construction sites in the urban centres, removal of trees and public green areas have negatively contributed the air quality of cities in Sri Lanka. Many government vehicles and public busses still do not follow the emission regulations. According to statistics compiled by Prof. Amal Kumarage of the Moratuwa University (2017), on an average, 300,000 vehicles enter the Colombo city daily. There are 7.24 million vehicles in Sri Lanka out of which 4.04 million are motorcycles with 1.14 million three wheelers and 600,000 vehicles are registered every year. The lack of a proper high quality public transport system has resulted in over 50% of the working population to use private vehicles to commute to work. Average speed for vehicles in Colombo was 22 km/hour in 2012 while it is now 17 km/hour. Vehicles travelling in traffic jams produce more fine particles in the form of soot which adversely affects our health.( Prof O.A. Illeperuma, The Island 2018)
Diesel as a Carcinogen
After three decades of epidemiologic research, diesel exhaust was classified as a carcinogen in humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2012 based on evidence of its carcinogenicity to the lung. It is also a known fact that low quality Diesel has high sulphur levels.
The current air pollution level around Sri Lanka has an annual average of 22 µg/m3 of PM2.5 particles which is 2.2 times the WHO safe level. Currently The main source of ambient air pollution in Sri Lanka is vehicular emissions, which in Colombo contributes to over 60% of total emissions.
Indoor Air Pollution
Indoor air pollution is caused by congested houses, cooking with fire woods and even with the use of chemicals indoors, kerosene lamps, burning mosquito coils and incense sticks etc. About 4.3 million people worldwide annually die from such indoor air pollution. Some indoor pollutants such as chemicals, mosquito coils and Incense sticks release carcinogenic chemicals. While fossil based electricity generation releases Green house gases lack of electricity at houses also result indoor air pollution either by burning fire woods for cooking or burning kerosene lamps.
Climate Crisis
Climate crisis itself is a result of unabated air pollution. Study from the Duke University claims that as many as 153 million deaths linked to air pollution worldwide this century could be prevented if governments speed up timetables for reducing fossil fuel emissions to keep below 1.5 C temperature increase.
Lack of Public Awareness
The public awareness is lagging on the danger of air pollution. People continue to pollute air at all levels and also die due to this lack of awareness.
World Environment Day 2019 is an another moment to call governments, industries, communities, and individuals to come together to explore renewable energy and green technologies, and improve air quality in cities and regions across the world. (END)
No comments:
Post a Comment