With disastrous consequences for human health, pollutants have spread throughout the entire global environment, even into little-polluting regions like rural Africa or the polar zones. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), environmental contaminants now cause about 25 percent of all human disease. You may find the realities of pollution and human health alarming, but becoming informed about the problems will enable you to identify and take part in solutions.
Air Pollutants
In both developing and developed nations, fossil fuel consumption--chiefly by industry, vehicles and power plants--releases air pollutants such as particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ground-level ozone. According to the World Health Organization, indoor air pollution from the burning of coal or biomass fuels like wood jeopardizes perhaps half of humanity. Air pollution causes 2 million deaths per year, mostly from heart disease and respiratory disorders like infections and lung cancer.
Land Pollutants
Transportation, manufacturing, mining, and agriculture based on chemical fertilizers and pesticides are major sources of land pollutants worldwide. These are mostly heavy metals, like lead and mercury, and persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, like dioxin and DDT. Both POPs and heavy metals last a long time without breaking down and enter human fat tissues readily. POPs are linked to nervous, immune, and reproductive system diseases, and heavy metals to cardiovascular and nervous system disorders, developmental delays, kidney diseases, cancers, and autoimmune conditions.
Water Contaminants
Worldwide, agricultural, industrial, and urban stormwater runoffs contaminate water with the same chemical toxins that pollute land. Particularly in the developing world, untreated sewage and other problems of basic sanitation frequently spread disease-causing microbes throughout water supplies. One in eight people alive today lack access to clean water. Over 3.5 million die annually from water-borne, diarrhea-causing diseases like cholera and dysentery. One child dies every 20 seconds from a water-borne disease.
Global Solutions
WHO estimates that a cleaner global environment could save as many as 13 million human lives every year, including the lives of 4 million children under five. In its belief that factors contributing to pollution are not entirely within the control and responsibility of individuals, WHO proposes "action by public authorities at the national, regional and even international levels" to reduce the global burden of disease from pollutants.
Local Solutions
Many people worry whether they can do anything to limit their own and their loved ones' exposure to pollutants. Unfortunately, complete freedom from pollution is impossible. However, you may have a number of health-protecting steps open to you, depending on which pollutants affect your local environment. These steps range from replacing your hazardous cleaning products with nontoxic alternatives to filtering your drinking water to growing and eating organic food (see Resources).
