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More die from car pollution than road accidents - WHO
UK: June 16, 1999
LONDON - Road traffic is the fastest growing source of pollution in Europe and in some countries more people are dying as a result of this air pollution than are being killed in accidents, health experts said yesterday.
A new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed long-term air pollution from cars in Austria, France and Switzerland triggered an extra 21,000 premature deaths per year from respiratory or heart diseases, more than the total number of annual traffic deaths in the three countries.
"Air pollution from traffic at the levels we have today does cause a major health impact," Dr Carlos Dora, of the WHO centre for health and environment in Rome, told a new conference.
The report was prepared for the WHO's Third Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health that begins on Wednesday in London.
It showed air pollution from cars caused 300,000 extra cases of bronchitis in children, 15,000 hospital admissions for heart disease and 162,000 asthma attacks in children in the three countries.
"The growing evidence that air pollution is causing a major health burden adds to the effects of road traffic through noise, accidents and barriers to cycling and walking, and we need to address this head on," Dora added.
Transport, air pollution, water, sanitation and climate change will top the agenda at the conference, billed as the largest political gathering of health and environment ministers in Europe. More than 70 ministers are due to attend to the three-day event.
Officials from the 51 members states of the WHO European region will debate a new charter on transport and the environment.
They will also be asked to sign a binding protocol on water and health to halt the re-emergence of diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
"One in seven people in Europe do not have safe drinking water," said Franklin Apfel, the WHO director of public affairs, emphasising the scale of the problem.
The protocol will require signatory countries to set targets and timetables for safe drinking water and sanitation.
The WHO will also urge countries to set up systems to monitor the impact of climate change and ozone depletion on health and the spread of insect-borne diseases.
Activists, voluntary groups and non-government organisations from across Europe will hold a parallel conference called The Healthy Planet Forum.