Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 7 July 2018
Africa's pollution killing thousands of infants, study says

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

NEW YORK (AP) — A new of Europeans. 8,000 years ago and has nal Science. first domesticated dogs of
study provides fresh evi- The only surviving legacy since spread to other ca- Researchers compared the North America arrived with
dence that the first dogs of appears to be a cancer nines throughout the world, genomes of ancient and people from Asia over the
North America all but dis- that arose from the cells of an international team re- modern American dogs. same Bering land bridge
appeared after the arrival a dog that lived more than ported Thursday in the jour- Results confirm that the used much earlier by hu-
mans. These dogs thrived
for thousands of years,
but mostly vanished after
contact with Europeans.
Scientists don't know why
they disappeared. "I just
find it really surprising," says
geneticist Elinor Karlsson
from the University of Mas-
sachusetts Medical School
in Worcester, who did not
participate in the study. q