New Delhi (ABC Live): Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health : The World Meteorological Organization is one of the co-organizers of the World Health Organization’s first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health.
The conference seeks to increase commitments from governments, health authorities, international organizations and the scientific community to act against this serious health threat.
Air pollution shortens the lives of around 7 million people each year, and nine out of 10 people breathe air polluted by traffic emissions, industry, agriculture or incineration, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
“No one escapes from the womb to the grave,” he said, pointing out that children are especially vulnerable. “The cost of action is high but the cost of inaction is even greater.”
WMO is one of a number of international partners for the WHO conference from 30 October to 1 November. Earlier this year WHO and WMO made a joint commitment to improve health outcomes through better weather, climate, atmospheric and hydrological services and through improved monitoring and management of environmental health risks, such as hazardous air quality.
The two agencies are striving for closer coordination between meteorological and environmental monitoring services which observe and predict air quality, and health authorities, which deal with the impact of human exposure to pollutants.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said that closer cooperation between the two sectors was key because of the need for the medical profession to have reliable in situ measurements of major pollutants.
“Action to improve air quality and tackle climate change are both a top global priority,” said Mr Taalas. “We can mitigate both problems with the same means by getting rid of fossil energy,” he said.
WMO is among the agencies mandated to help to tackle global air pollution, particularly measuring and forecasting air pollution conditions.
WMO developed the international standards and guidance on the observations of many pollutants and works towards new guidance for such pollutants as black carbon.
WMO supports the Convention on the Long-Range Transboundary Air pollution and co-chairs it’s Task Force on Measurement and Modelling.
Today, the WMO provides our knowledge on global air pollution through the Global Atmosphere Watch Programme, supported by the Member countries.
Ozone pollution
Ahead of the conference, WMO released a new report on Reactive Gases, focusing on ozone pollution. It said that air quality regulations and anti-pollution measures in Europe and North America have had very positive impacts on air quality. Since the year 2000, both average and peak surface ozone concentrations have levelled off and even started to fall at some locations after increasing throughout the twentieth century.
By contrast, the few available monitoring stations in East Asia have measured a continuous increase in ozone levels. Tropospheric ozone is harmful to human health, crops and ecosystems and is also a greenhouse gas and, due to long-distance atmospheric transport, some surface sites on the west coast of North America also show a continued increase, according to the WMO Reactive Gases Bulletin.
Sand and dust storms
The air pollution conference seeks to secure commitments for greater action to ensure that people breathe clean air.
In one of many practical steps, WMO is working to improve warnings of sand and dust storms, which adversely impact human health, the environment, agriculture and transport in more than 150 countries. The main sources of mineral dusts are the arid regions of Northern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia and China.
WMO’s Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System has established a coordinated global network of sand and dust storm research and forecasting centres. It integrates research and user communities (e.g., from the health, energy, transport, aeronautical, and agricultural sectors).
Presently there are three Regional Nodes: the Northern Africa-Middle East-Europe Node, hosted by Spain, the Asian Node, hosted by China, and the Pan-American Node, hosted by Barbados and the USA.
The WMO SDS-WAS Regional Centre for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe operated by the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) have just inaugurated a warning advisory system for Burkina Faso, in collaboration with its National Meteorological Agency.
Burkina Faso is badly affected by sand and dust storms and is within a belt of African countries vulnerable to Meningococcal meningitis which has a link to sand and dust.
The funds to support the new advisory system for Burkina Faso came from the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems initiative. It is hoped to expand the initiative to other countries
Details about the Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, including livestream, are available here
