UAE's good air quality reflects green policies: paper
Date
9/29/2016 2:58:45 AM
(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM))
ABU DHABI, 29th September, 2016 (WAM) -- A UAE newspaper has said that a report issued by the World Health Organisation, WHO, on Tuesday makes for alarming reading. According to the most comprehensive study yet of air pollution carried out by scientists using a network of more than 3,000 environment sampling stations in conjunction with satellite imagery and monitoring, more than nine out of 10 of us living on this planet are breathing air that is contaminated.
In an editorial today, Gulf News said, "The very act of breathing makes us more susceptible to death from heart attacks and stroke, lung cancer, respiratory conditions and other health issues.
"Indeed, according to the WHO data, more than one million Chinese died in 2012 from breathing in polluted air, with more than 600,000 in India, while the former Soviet Union republics of Turkmenistan, Russia itself and Ukraine had air quality that was the poorest. The main cause of poor air quality are coal-fired power stations or furnaces, exhaust fumes from vehicles, and industrial processing and cement making.
"For the first time too, the WHO data gave a country-by-country breakdown of how nearly 200 nations are faring. While the report overall makes for depressing reading, there is good news. Here in the UAE, air quality is good, and WHO reports that seven deaths out of every 100,000 in the UAE can be directly linked to the air we breathe. The UAE rate puts the nation in the lowest level; to get better air quality, one would have to move to Australia or to an island in the Pacific Ocean.
"The WHO report should be taken seriously by governments globally to put tough measures in place to improve air quality, and should provide ample evidence to doubters of climate change that air pollution is adversely affecting both the quality and quantity of life terms while adding to the overall greenhouse effect.
"Here in the UAE, the report is effectively an endorsement of the measures being undertaken by all levels of government in partnership with industry and companies, with the low death rate being a confirmation that those policies are working. Indeed, on the same day that the WHO report was issued, the UAE was simultaneously rolling out a new draft standard to ensure vehicles are more fuel efficient and drive cleaner.
"The UAE has been long committed to making the nation greener, with a better quality of air and the environment generally. Projects such as Masdar in Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Solar Park in Dubai and the nuclear generating facility under construction in Al Baraka are testament to the success of that policy," concluded the Dubai-based daily.
WAM/Esraa/Moran
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