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Italy first in Europe for deaths from fine dust

November 14, 2019

ROME – The changing climate is one of the biggest threats to human health. CO emissions largely determine this₂, therefore from the pollution that its victims already do directly, and Italy on this front is dramatically in the front row: it is first in Europe (and 11th in the world) for premature deaths from exposure to PM2.5 fine particles. This is the alarm raised in The Lancet magazine in the report Countdown on Health and Climate Change on the impact of climate change on health. "Only in 2016 – one of the authors of the report explains to Ansa Marina Romanello of the University College of London – in our country there were 45.600 deaths at an early age, with an economic loss of over 20 million euros, the worst in Europe ".It is climate change that has already caused so many victims in the world with heat waves, floods and fires, and many others will be lashing weapons such as infections, poverty and malnutrition, if it is not possible to limit global warming. The "future health of an entire generation is threatened by climate change – the report's authors write – if the objectives of the Paris agreement will not be achieved, first and foremost limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to levels preindustrial ".
For example climate change makes it increasingly plausible the arrival in countries like ours of new infectious diseases such as Dengue fever: in Italy, Romanello points out, "the probability that a vector mosquito transmits the infection from an infected individual is doubled since 1980 and the expense could be primarily the smallest, and not only Dengue, cholera is more frightening in the world, increasing, as temperatures rise, the possibility of epidemics even in countries not normally affected by infection".And yet, the red-hot climate has already caused many victims through heat waves that increase the risk of stroke and severe kidney problems in vulnerable people, typically the elderly. Suffice it to say that in Italy alone, 9.3 million more cases were counted than over-65s exposed to heat waves in 2017 compared to 2000, points out Romanello. The world figure reported in the Lancet indicates for 2018 a record of 220 million over-65s exposed to heat waves more than in 2000, with the elderly living in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean among those most at risk. The extreme heat waves also cause poverty, reducing working hours: an estimated 45 billion hours of work lost in 2018 compared to 2000 (1.7 million more hours lost in Italy, especially in the agricultural sector) .

The climatic problems then cause malnutrition, because they threaten the crops: only in Italy the harvest potential has been reduced for all basic food crops (since the 1960s that of maize has been reduced by 10.2%, that of winter wheat 5%, 7% soy, 5% rice). It is therefore crucial to respect the Paris agreement on the climate: only in this way can a child born today, the researchers conclude, be able to celebrate his 31st birthday in a zero-emission world and future generations will be able to have a healthier and safer future.

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