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WORLD NEWS Thursday 28 June 2018

Africa's pollution killing thousands of infants, study says

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA investors to develop local
Associated Press industry.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Some countries are starting
Modest reductions in air to act. In the East African
pollution can prevent the nation of Uganda, where
deaths of tens of thousands cars emitting black exhaust
of infants in sub-Saharan fumes are a common sight
Africa each year, accord- on the roads, a draft law
ing to a new scientific proposes to ban imports of
study that investigated the vehicles older than eight
link between breathable years. The bill, already ap-
air pollutants and prema- proved by Uganda's cabi-
ture deaths in 30 countries net, aims to curb imports
across the continent. of used Japanese cars that
Although few pollution are seen as a major source
monitoring systems exist of pollution in the urban ar-
in Africa, the researchers eas.
combined satellite-based According to the World
data estimating the con- Health Organization, 97
centration of air pollutant percent of cities with more
particles with household than 100,000 inhabitants
health survey data on the in developing countries
location and timing of al- don't meet WHO air qual-
most 1 million infant births ity guidelines. That number
— and any subsequent decreases to 49 percent in
deaths — between 2001 high-income countries.
and 2015. In this Tuesday, June 5, 2018 photo, environmental protesters demonstrate against recent A 2015 study published in
There is a "robust relation- government plans to mine coal and open a coal-fired power plant, in Nairobi, Kenya. Nature found that air pollu-
ship" between breathable Associated Press tion, mostly by breathable
particulate matter and in- particulate matter, leads
fant mortality in some of cording to the World Health Africa might have avert- and reducing traffic con- to 3.3 million premature
the world's poorest coun- Organization. ed around 40,000 infant gestion." deaths a year worldwide,
tries, according research- Many people in Africa, deaths in 2015. Addressing biomass burn- predominantly in Asia. That
ers from Stanford University where the process of rural "The principal sources of ing both in the farming study projected that by
and the University of Cali- electrification has been particulate matter differ fields and for cooking may 2050 the death total would
fornia, San Diego published slow, still burn wood to across sub-Saharan Africa. require more comprehen- double, to about 6.6 mil-
Wednesday in the journal cook or heat their homes. As such, policies and ap- sive policies to rapidly move lion a year, if trends didn't
Nature. Other sources of pollutants proaches to reducing pol- households up the energy change.
Particulate matter, one of may be natural, including lution may be most appro- ladder, he said, citing so- "The realities of our society
many air pollutants, is be- large amounts of dust from priately undertaken at the lar energy as "an excellent are so difficult," said Denis
lieved by many experts to the Sahara Desert. local and regional scale," way to remove kerosene Akankunda Bwesigye, a
be the most harmful to hu- Every 10-microgram-per- Sam Heft-Neal, one of the emissions" from homes. fellow at Uganda's Mak-
man health. The term refers cubic-meter increase in the study's authors, told The As- The study also found that erere University School of
to small particles suspend- concentration of breath- sociated Press. "In booming wealthier households were Public Health, citing the
ed in the air, including dust able particulate matter urban areas, many of the not immune from the nega- widespread use in rural ar-
and black carbon origi- is associated with an in- relevant technologies and tive effects of air pollution. eas of burning wood in the
nating from such sources crease of about 9 percent policies are the same ones Although many African process of cooking.
as fossil fuel and biomass in infant mortality, an effect that have been applied in governments recognize the Air pollution, he said, con-
burning. Air pollution con- consistent over the 15-year more developed econo- threat to lives from air pol- tributes significantly to the
tributes to the global bur- study period, the study's mies: moving away from lutants, efforts to stem pol- cases of pneumonia, which
den of heart disease, lung authors say. They also esti- coal to cleaner feedstocks lution have often lagged kills more than 24,000 Ugan-
cancer, as well as respira- mate that a decrease in air for electric power produc- behind the more practi- dan children under the age
tory diseases such as asth- pollution of 5 micrograms tion, putting particulate cal concerns of growing of 5 each year, according
ma and pneumonia, ac- per cubic meter across filters on buses and trucks, economies and attracting to government figures.q