Road to 5**：Premature death in China related to air pollution
【明報專訊】◆News summary
In December 2019, the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) published a report. Citing statistics from 2017, it identified pollution as the main environmental factor leading to premature death, accounting for 15% of all individual deaths (around 8.3 million people). 40% of these deaths were related to air pollution (excluding interior air pollution). Furthermore, China and India together account for half of all deaths related to air pollution worldwide.
．Ranking of countries by number of premature deaths related to air pollution, 2017 (see picture)
■Mock examination question
Identify and explain two characteristics of the number of premature deaths related to air pollution in 2017.
Key words: characteristics, premature deaths, air pollution
1. The number of premature deaths in China or India is far greater than that in any other country.
Analysis:
Statistics show that China and India together account for half of all premature, air pollution-related deaths around the world, exceeding 2.48 million deaths in 2017. This may be due to their large populations and vibrant manufacturing industries. In China and India, carbon emissions of factories cause serious air pollution in local areas, and these countries have the biggest and second biggest populations in the world respectively. It can be inferred that the economic development and societal characteristics of the two countries are closely related to premature deaths caused by pollution. Therefore, the numbers of premature deaths caused by air pollution in China and India are much larger than that of many other countries.
2. The number of premature deaths caused by air pollution is usually greater in developing countries.
Analysis:
In 2017, among the ten countries with the highest numbers of premature deaths related to air pollution, all except the US were developing countries. This may be related to the lack of good public healthcare systems, lack of awareness of the effect of air pollution on health, or extensive development methods implemented to reduce economic costs in developing countries, which resulted in more cases of premature deaths related to air pollution.
Source: Ming Pao, 2020.04.27
Translated by Odyssey Lang
[通通識 第672期]
