A boy collects drinking water from a rain puddle in Kabwe, Zambia, where the ground is full of lead after decades of mining. Inset: Study author Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc. Photo: Larry C. Price
For decades, families in Dong Mai, Vietnam, recycled used car batteries in their backyards and kitchens without any environmental controls. In Sovetskoe, Kyrgyzstan, homes, playgrounds, and schools were constructed with red sand that contained high levels of lead still present in the soil years after a Soviet-era metal processing factory was closed. In Madre de Dios, Peru, where livelihoods depend upon small-scale gold mining, dangerously high levels of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that is used to separate gold from other materials, have been found in the bodies of 78 percent of residents.
Indeed, rising levels of ambient air pollution, chemical pollution, and soil pollution are extracting a deadly toll on the lives of people around the world, in particular, the very young and very old, and those in low- and middle-income countries. The cost of pollution led to an estimated 9 million premature deaths in 2015—16 percent of all deaths worldwide. This number represents three times more deaths than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, and 15 times more than from all wars and other forms of violence.
These first-ever findings appear in the October 2017 issue of The Lancet in a study led by Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, Dean for Global Health, Professor of Environmental Medicine, Public Health, and Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Richard Fuller, Founder and President of the nongovernmental organization Pure Earth, and Secretariat of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. Dr. Landrigan and Mr. Fuller worked with Pamela Das, MD, Senior Executive Editor of The Lancet, in an exhaustive effort to document the data.
Study author Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc
“We want to turn this report into action,” said Dr. Landrigan, who spoke on Monday, October 23, at a special event on the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai campus that officially launched the study. The goal of the report, he said, was to raise global awareness of pollution and mobilize politicians to tackle it by providing them with comprehensive figures on its impact on human health and economics.
“Though the warnings are sobering, the optimistic message is that pollution can be addressed,” said Dr. Das.
The culmination of a two-year project that involved more than 14 international health agencies, the report is the first to document the global effects of environmental pollutants on human health and the worldwide economic costs of pollution-related disease and death. It also is the first study that brings together data on all forms of pollution, including air, water, soil, heavy metals, chemicals, and occupational pollutants. Pollution is defined as any material that people release into the environment that harms human health, and does not include naturally occurring chemicals, cigarette smoke, drug abuse, or similar lifestyle factors.
At the event to launch The Lancet report, Dennis S. Charney, MD, reminded the audience of Mount Sinai’s decades-old role in promoting environmental health.
“We hope our findings will really elevate pollution within the political health agenda and inspire and encourage all levels of society to make pollution a priority,” said Dr. Das.
Speaking to the audience, Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, said, “Mount Sinai will continue to investigate the role of the environment on health and disease and work with elected officials and others to impact changes that will improve the lives of our citizens and others around the world.”
Richard Fuller, co-author of the report
Pollution’s significant effect on the brains of developing fetuses and infants is particularly dire in the low-income and middle-income countries that have largely neglected the issue. Though they are diverse, middle-income countries—ranging from Kenya in the lower range to China in the upper range—comprise 5 billion of the world’s 7 billion people, and 73 percent of the world’s poor, according to the World Bank.
“A child with brain damage caused by pollution is never going to live the full potential of his life. It can’t be fixed but it can be prevented, and the next child can be protected,” Dr. Landrigan said.
Decades ago, Dr. Landrigan’s pioneering work led the U.S. government to remove lead from gasoline and paint, resulting in a more than 90 percent reduction in the incidence of childhood lead poisoning over the past 25 years.
Pamela Das, MD, the report’s editor
According to The Lancet report, the removal of lead from gasoline has returned an estimated $200 billion to the U.S. economy each year since 1980. To date, there has been an aggregate benefit of more than $6 trillion through the increased cognitive function and enhanced economic productivity of generations of children exposed since birth to only low amounts of lead. A decrease in IQ of one percentage point lowers lifetime earnings by as much as 2.4 percent, according to the study. Lower IQs also increase the cost to society by adding to the use of social welfare services and making incarceration more likely.
For every dollar invested in air pollution control since 1970, The Lancet reports that $30 has been returned to the U.S. economy, an aggregate benefit of $1.5 trillion on an investment of $65 billion.
A woman in Dong Mai, Vietnam, breaks down electrical transformers and other e-waste. Photo: Pure Earth www.pureearth.org
As a person’s exposure to pollution increases, his or her risk for noncommunicable diseases, including ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer, also increase. But the slow progression of these diseases over time is one reason why pollution has not garnered the same level of attention as say, the Zika virus. In Southeast Asia, where ambient air pollution is the worst in the world, Dr. Landrigan says pollution is expected to increase 50 percent by 2050 if aggressive interventions are not put in place.
Among the attendees at Mount Sinai’s kickoff event were former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Regina McCarthy. Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, an international agency that supports sustainable development, addressed the audience via video.
“Failure to take the report seriously is detrimental to our children, families, and communities, and also to our economies and the planet at large,” Mr. Steiner said. “It is not a luxury for rich countries but an imperative for all.”
