A new compendium of 500 actions aimed at reducing death and diseases driven by environmental risk factors has been created.
And, if the actions are fully implemented, almost 25% of deaths worldwide could be prevented, according the World Health Organization (WHO).
Environmental pollution and other environmental risks cause 24% of deaths through, for example, heart disease, stroke, poisonings, traffic accidents, and others, according to the WHO.
This toll could be substantially reduced – even eliminated – through bold preventive action at national, regional, local and sector-specific levels.
The Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health & environment provides easy access to practical actions for practitioners to scale up efforts to create healthy environments that prevent disease.
It is designed for policymakers, staff in government ministries, local government, in-country UN personnel and other decision makers.
It presents actions and recommendations to address a comprehensive range of environmental risk factors to health, such as air pollution, unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene, climate and ecosystem change, chemicals, radiation and occupational risks, among others.
Air pollution alone leads to seven million deaths each year, while climate change is expected to contribute increasingly to a broad range of health impacts, both directly and indirectly through effects on biodiversity.
“Events like record-breaking high temperatures in North America, massive flooding in Europe and China, and devastating wildfire seasons provide increasingly frequent, grim reminders that countries need to step up action to eliminate the health impacts of environmental risk factors,” said Dr Maria Neira, director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, at WHO.
She added that the UN is uniting its health and environment expertise to support countries in achieving sustainable development goals.
The compendium, which is accessible via interactive webpages on the WHO website and as a PDF for offline reference, also addresses priority settings for action, such as cities and urban settlements, as well as children’s environmental health.
Two thirds of deaths attributed to environmental risk factors are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, making the actions in the compendium a crucial part of addressing the NCD epidemic, said the WHO.
The compendium can also play an important role in achieving health equity, as low- and middle-income countries bear the greatest environmental burden in all types of diseases and injuries.