{"id":2071,"date":"2018-11-27T14:37:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T13:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&p=2071"},"modified":"2018-11-28T16:03:33","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T15:03:33","slug":"qed-tiehu-nifs-tajjeb","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/qed-tiehu-nifs-tajjeb\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you breathing properly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nothing is more important for life than the breath we take.\u00a0 About 250 million litres of air pass through your lung in your lifetime. If you go walking down a busy road know that you are absorbing about 20 million pollution particles in one breath.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Toxic air\u00a0has become the biggest environmental risk of an early death, responsible for one in every nine deaths. Polluted air kills seven million people a year, way more than HIV, tuberculosis and malaria put together.\u00a0 Toxic air has become a global public health emergency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Air pollution is getting worse in the developed world and,\u00a0while the situation is improving in some countries, knowledge about how it is harming our bodies and our mental health is steadily increasing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Air pollution\u00a0has been with us for many centuries.\u00a0We used to live with it and no one ever had air pollution noted down as cause of death on their death certificate. It is only in the last few years that the damage done to our health has become evident and it has recently been given a great deal of prominence, in part due to research findings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Actions\u00a0to\u00a0lessen air pollution\u00a0do not only have\u00a0immediate\u00a0benefits; they also help fight climate change in the long run.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Air pollution\u00a0affects almost everyone. More than 90 per cent of the\u00a0world\u00a0population\u00a0lives in places where air pollution is higher than the guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to\u00a0WHO, outdoor air pollution causes 4.2 million early deaths.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What harm does air pollution do?\u00a0Research is now linking toxic air not only with practically every part of the body but\u00a0now\u00a0also\u00a0with\u00a0the brain.\u00a0The damage done by toxic air is a surprising new finding. Polluted air has been linked with various other conditions, such as diabetes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to one particular study, air pollution led to\u00a03.2 million new cases of this disease in 2016.\u00a0 Conditions related to kidney function and even Alzheimer\u2019s disease\u00a0have\u00a0also been linked to air pollution. The skin is also affected; it ages quickly in polluted air.\u00a0\u00a0While children are growing, asthma and fast growing lungs are serious issues related to air pollution. Even\u00a0children\u2019s ability to learn at school and the risk of delinquency among adolescents is tied to polluted air. The WHO is clear:\u00a0 the burden of diseases arising from polluted air is set to rise exponentially.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the centre of the problem of air pollution lie great injustices.\u00a0By using the air to dispose of their waste polluters are destroying a resource that belongs to all and getting out of paying the full price for their actions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The issue is not doing what needs to be done to tackle the air pollution emergency, but the lack of political will. Many ideas and solutions have been proposed. What is important is\u00a0that\u00a0whoever is at the helm is\u00a0committed to achieving the required results.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Nothing is more important for life than the breath we take.\u00a0 About 250 million litres of air pass through your lung in your lifetime. If you go walking down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2065,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[87],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2071"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2081,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2071\/revisions\/2081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=2071"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=2071"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=2071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}