Today is World Health Day (WHD). Worried that no fewer than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes, experts have made recommendations on how to protect human health and combat the climate crisis at a time of heightened conflict and fragility.

WHD, April 7, is also the World Health Organisation (WHO’s) founding day. The Organisation seeks a re-imagining and re-prioritisation of resources to usher in sustainable and well-being societies.

The WHO is issuing an urgent call for accelerated action by leaders and all people to preserve and protect health and mitigate the climate crisis as part of an “Our planet, our health” campaign marking the organisation’s founding day, which happens at a time of heightened conflict and fragility.

According to a new data released yesterday by the WHO, roughly 24 per cent of all global deaths are linked to the environment – a healthier environment could prevent these deaths. Almost the entire global population (99 per cent) breathes air that exceeds WHO air quality limits, and threatens their health. A record number of over 6000 cities in 117 countries are now monitoring air quality, but the people living in them are still breathing unhealthy levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, with people in low and middle-income countries suffering the highest exposures.

The findings have prompted the WHO to highlight the importance of curbing fossil fuel use and taking other tangible steps to reduce air pollution levels.

Director General, WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “The climate crisis is a health crisis: the same unsustainable choices that are killing our planet are killing people.

“We need transformative solutions to wean the world off its addiction to fossil fuels, to reimagine economies and societies focused on well-being, and to safeguard the health of the planet on which human health depends.”

The WHO said COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fault lines of inequity across the world, underlining the urgency for creating sustainable, well-being societies which do not breach ecological limits and which ensure that all people have access to life-saving and life-enhancing tools, systems, policies and environments.

WHO’s Manifesto to ensure a healthy and green recovery from COVID-19 prescribes protecting and preserving nature as the source of human health; investing in essential services from water and sanitation to clean energy in healthcare facilities; ensuring a quick and healthy energy transition; promoting healthy and sustainable food systems; building healthy and livable cities; and stopping the use of taxpayers’ money to fund pollution.

The Geneva Charter for well-being highlights what global commitments are needed to achieve equitable health and social outcomes now and for future generations, without destroying the health of the planet.

Through its WHD campaign, WHO is calling on governments, organisations, corporations, and citizens to share actions they are taking to protect the planet and human health.

ON the situation in Nigeria, President, Academy of Medicine Specialties (AMS) and Africa Reproductive Care Society (ARCS), Prof Oladapo A. Ashiru, told The Guardian that the National Policy on Climate Change of Nigeria is a strategic policy response that aims to foster low- carbon, high growth economic development path and build a climate-resilient society through the attainment of set targets.

Ashiru said Nigeria, like other parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other treaties aimed at stabilising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (that is, the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement), participated actively in the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), which took place between October and November 2021 in Glasgow.

He said despite the legislation, the implementation is slow and requires more strategic focus on achieving an environmentally friendly climate for Nigeria.

On the implications of adverse climatic and environmental events such as rising temperatures, flooding, wildfire, on healthcare in Nigeria, Ashiru said: “ The implications are severe for our country. In the oil-producing areas of the country, environmental toxins are high, with severe consequences for health such as reproductive health and even cancer. At the recently concluded Summit of the Merck Foundation and the Africa Reproductive Care Society, part of the Summit focused on the adverse effects of Climate Change and Toxic Environmental Exposure. It is said that there is no sin greater than ignorance.

“We continue to pollute our climate by how we live, eat, use, and dispose of our waste, such as plastics, pesticides, insecticides, cosmetics, and more. Also, at work, the way we dispose of industrial waste protects our workers from industrial hazards such as paints, petrochemicals, and several other industrial pollutants. The inadequate electricity supply has created the need to use diesel, petrol, and kerosene as a source of generating electricity. All of these lead to severe pollution and depletion of the ozone layer, with consequent impact on climate change. Today, many countries are moving toward other environmentally friendly energy sources like solar and wind. We in Nigeria should start producing solar panels and batteries so they can provide an affordable source of energy.”

On the recommended actions for governments, mayors, corporations, health facilities, workers, and individuals, Ashiru said there have been several recommendations and actions that can be implemented by the government, the chairman of local governments, corporations, health facilities, workers, and individuals.

He said the most effective method to preserve the environment is to plant trees. “Trees may take longer to grow, but they serve the next generation. Have you ever walked under the scorching sun and wished there was a tree to offer you shade? If you have, what did you do about it? Trees provide shade and eliminate the need for air conditioning.

“Trees are used in the paper industry. So, you can save the trees by maximising the use of your paper. For example, you can print or write on both sides,” he said.

Ashiru said conservation of water is critical. “Water is life. Water conservation is vital since we cannot survive without water. A significant amount of energy is used to pump water to your home. You can minimise water wastage through recycling,” he said.

Ashiru also recommended minimising food wastage. He explained: “Statistics show that in the United States, 40 per cent of food is wasted annually. Also, research shows that annually food that gets lost globally is sufficient to feed almost a billion hungry people worldwide.

“Wasted food is thrown in landfills and, with time, decomposes to hazardous greenhouse gas, methane. Moreover, wasting food implies the wastage of energy and water used to produce the food. Fortunately, there are measures we can take to reduce food wastage.”

Ashiru said switching off lights and electronic gadgets that are not in use would help. “Turn off a computer, television, printer, and even lights not in use. Apart from saving energy, it also promotes deep sleep,” he said.

Ashiru said people should consider using LED bulbs or energy-saving fluorescent to save electricity. Initial installation or replacement may be considerably costly, but you will enjoy fewer electricity bills monthly.

Ashiru said Nigerians could save energy by exercising without electronic machines. “Instead of using a treadmill, you can opt for actual running, walking, cycling, press-ups, pushups, and many other manual exercises,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to reduce, reuse and recycle. “Cut down on what you throw away,” Ashiru said.

MEANWHILE, the 2022 update of the WHO’s air quality database introduces, for the first time, ground measurements of annual mean concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a common urban pollutant and precursor of particulate matter and ozone. It also includes measurements of particulate matter with diameters equal or smaller than 10 μm (PM10) or 2.5 μm (PM2.5). Both groups of pollutants originate mainly from human activities related to fossil fuel combustion.

The new air quality database is the most extensive yet in its coverage of air pollution exposure on the ground. Some 2,000 more cities/human settlements are now recording ground monitoring data for particulate matter, PM10 and/or PM2.5, than the last update. This marks an almost six-fold rise in reporting since the database was launched in 2011.

WHO last year revised its Air Quality Guidelines, making them more stringent in an effort to help countries better evaluate the healthiness of their own air.

WHO Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, Dr. Maria Neira, said: “After surviving a pandemic, it is unacceptable to still have seven million preventable deaths and countless preventable lost years of good health due to air pollution. That’s what we’re saying when we look at the mountain of air pollution data, evidence, and solutions available. Yet too many investments are still being sunk into a polluted environment rather than in clean, healthy air.”

People living in lower and middle-income countries are the most exposed to air pollution. They are also the least covered in terms of air quality measurement — but the situation is improving.

“Pollution and plastics are found at the bottom of deepest oceans, the highest mountains and have made their way into our food chain. Systems to produce ultra-processed, unhealthy foods and beverages are driving a wave of obesity, increasing cancer and heart disease while generating a third of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Asthma, heart disease, lung diseases are skyrocketing as over 90 percent of people breathe unhealthy air resulting from burning of fossil fuels. A heating world is seeing mosquitoes spread diseases further and faster than ever before. Extreme weather events, land degradation and water scarcity are displacing people and affecting their health,” WHO said.