Off the wire
• Fitch's decision affords S. Africa narrow window for reforms: Treasury  • Urgent: Three killed in shooting attacks in coastal Israeli city  • ECB foreign exchange rates of Euro to other currencies  • UN chief names head of military observer group in India, Pakistan  • Hamburg' s custodian Jaroslav Drobny joins rivals Bremen  • Germany's benchmark DAX index closes down  • Canada's Ontario unveils billion-dollar climate change action plan  • Gold futures settle higher as rate increase expectation descends  • Oil prices extend gains as U.S. stockpiles fall  • S. Sudan's forest cover shrinks by 1.5 pct annually: UNEP official  
You are here: 　 Home

UN report sees air pollution as biggest health risk in Europe

Xinhua, June 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Poor air quality becomes the greatest health risk in Europe, said a UN spokesman on Wednesday, citing a report by the UN Environment Agency (UNEP) and its European partners.

The report also listed climate change, unhealthy lifestyles and disconnection between people and the environment as factors increasingly affecting human health in Pan-European region, Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

The report, the latest Global Environment Outlook, was prepared by UNEP and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) with support from the European Environment Agency (EEA), Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"Air pollution is now the greatest health risk in the region, with more than 95 percent of the EU (European Union) urban population exposed to levels above World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines," he said.

More than 500,000 premature deaths in the region were attributable to outdoor air quality and 100,000 to indoor air quality in 2012.

Climate change is one of the largest threats to human and ecosystem health and to achieving sustainable development in the pan-European region, the report said.

It is also an accelerator for most other environmental risks. Impacts of climate change affect health through floods, heat waves, droughts, reduced agricultural productivity, exacerbated air pollution and allergies and vector, food and water-borne diseases, it added.

On-going biodiversity decline and loss is particularly high in Eastern and Western Europe, with lower rates in Central Europe, the Russian Federation and Central Asian countries, according to the report.

Biodiversity underpins all ecosystem services, guaranteeing supply of environmental goods and services, such as nutrients and food, clean air and freshwater, said the report.

Competing interests for land resources are widespread across the region. Every day the 28 member countries of the European Union alone lose 275 hectares of agricultural land to soil sealing and land take.

Land quality impacts human health in various ways, through direct benefits from food and nutrition, living and recreational space for optimal lifestyles, physical exercise and even mental health. Enditem