The UN warns that pollution levels around the globe have already reached unsustainable levels. Experts say that they are seriously endangering human health. It also has repercussions, and can be found in other ways, both in the air and in the oceans, land, food, and practically everywhere on the planet. In addition, a model that the World Health Organization published last year, points out how 92% of the world's inhabitants live in places where, pollution rates, exceed the maximum allowed levels.
"As humanity, we are damaging the planet in a totally unacceptable way". These are the words of Ibrahim Thiaw, UN Deputy Director for the Environment. He also specified that the poor are the most vulnerable to these consequences, and that this is also their main wealth. At the same time, he pointed out that it is not only a matter for the government, but here the implication is everyone's, organizations, private sectors and each individual person.
Measures and examples proposed by Thiaw
One of them is the oceans. It was one of the issues that was addressed at a UN conference this past June. This culminated in the international community's commitment to conserve and sustainably manage all marine waters. In addition, recent studies, are studying the impact of plastic ingestion by plankton in the seas and how it affects the rest of the tropical chain. Two and a half years ago, the ingestion of plastic microparticles was filmed for the first time, the most harmful part and the most difficult to get rid of.
Thiaw considered it a vital goal for humans to stop dumping garbage in the oceans and seas. That it also begins to cede its overexploitation, both fishing and mineral. There are expectations to be taken that will be exposed at the Third Environmental Assembly by the United Nations that will be held from December 4-6 in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
Harmful Impacts of Environmental Pollution on Pregnancies
Environmental pollution directly affects pregnancyThis is how a study by the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal) shows. The pollution produced by vehicles affects proportionally how overcrowded cities are with respect to them. Environmental exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) during pregnancy, and after this one in the early years, has a high incidence in the attention capacity of children decreasing it.
There is also a relationship between pollution and cognitive abilities. The more pollution, the lower the cognitive performance, and vice versa.
1.300 children from Valencia, Sabadell, Asturias and Guipúzcoa participated in the study. In all of them, NO2 levels were evaluated from before birth to 4-5 years of age, continuously and with follow-up. The performance test that was used was the Kiddie-Coners test.
How Air Pollution Affects Stress Hormones
Pollution, in addition to performance, is linked to stress. This time, a study carried out by doctors from Fudan University, in Shanghai, China. Stress, in addition to the psychological effects, has effects that, like anxiety, can occur in the body. It is something very dangerous, and in situations of chronic stress, the damage is usually greater. According to the study, they also found that it affects blood sugar level and blood pressure.
Shanghai
To conclude that breathing polluted air increases stress hormones, the researchers they studied particulate matter (PM 2.5). Tiny particles that are in the air as a result of pollution, and that they measure less than 2mm, they are very easy to breathe.
They chose among students from Shanghai and other less polluted cities, all healthy. They were placed in rooms, and all of them with air filters. But with a difference, some filters worked and others didn't. After 9 days they changed, where the good filters were, they placed the bad ones, and vice versa. Throughout the process, they measured the composition of various molecules present in both urine and blood.
The conclusion drawn from the study was that when we find polluted air we find more stress hormones, such as cortisol, cortisone, epinephrine, and norapinephrine. Likewise, increase the levels of sugar, amino acids, fatty acids and lipids present in the blood. In addition, blood pressure increased with pollution.
All this led the researchers to affirm that all this accumulation leads in the long term to diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes.