The dangerous haze that hung over parts of the Northeast and Midwest Wednesday morning was highly unusual for the United States. For many people around the world, that would be somewhat normal.
Cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America have been so polluted for so long that air quality readings like those expected on Wednesday in parts of New York State, which are expected to pose a risk to people with respiratory problems, do not would be seen as a particular cause for alarm.
Maybe foreigners can feel it, but for me, it’s just the ordinary air I breathe every day, said Paiboon Kaewklangrong, a taxi driver in Bangkok, on Wednesday. Polluted, hot, dusty. But it is what it is.
In a prepandemic study, the World Health Organization found that 99% of the world’s population lived in places that didn’t meet its guidelines for healthy air quality.
Bad air can be dangerous, especially if you’ve been breathing it your whole life. Short-term effects include coughing, congestion, and inflammation. Long-term exposure can damage the liver and brain and increase the risk of blood clots that can lead to heart attacks.
An added risk with smoke from wildfires is that the particulate matter they produce, known as PM, can mix with emissions from cars, factories and stoves in urban areas, said Rajasekhar Balasubramanian, an air quality expert at the National University of Singapore.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that the PM in the smoke haze is more toxic than usual urban PM, he said.
WHO estimates that the effects of outdoor and household air pollution are associated with approximately 6.7 million annual deaths worldwide, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
South Asia has nine of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air and persistently dangerous pollution that causes about two million premature deaths a year, the World Bank said in a recent report. That pollution is partly a function of emissions from vehicles and heavy industry, but also from brick kilns, burning fields and other sources. People from poor households, who spend most of their lives outdoors and cannot afford air filters, tend to face the greatest risks.
In East Asia, years of chronic air pollution are one reason why wearing face masks was common well before the coronavirus pandemic. Schoolchildren are used to playing inside on bad weather days. In the Korean language, bad air has a specific term of fine dust and its levels are displayed in real time in places such as train stations, bus stops and elevators.
I know fine dust is a problem and I don’t think twice about it anymore, said Lee Hyung-ko, a college student in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It’s not going away anytime soon, so we just have to live with it.
Air pollution can also weigh heavily on politics. In South Korea, would-be presidents have made reducing air pollution part of their electoral platforms. In China, the smog over Beijing and other cities has over the years been seen as a failure of leadership. And the smoke that occasionally wafts from forest and peat fires in Indonesia to other parts of Southeast Asia tends to infuriate neighboring governments.
Sometimes political pressure on bad air leads to tangible changes. Beginning in the late 1980s, when Mexico City came under international criticism for its bad air, the city and the neighboring state government took a variety of measures, such as limiting the number of days cars were allowed on the road each week and close an urban refinery. The reforms mostly worked: the city’s air improved markedly.
In other cases, urban air has improved because of something no one saw coming. In Bangkok, as in New Delhi and other cities, for example, the air in the city of 11 million people has improved markedly during the coronavirus pandemic, said Paiboon, the taxi driver, who has been driving a cab for 18 years.
Now it’s back to normal.
If you drive early in the morning on the highway, you can see that it’s all foggy, he said. It looks like fog, but it’s not. They are all dust particles.
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Upepo wa hatari uliokuwa juu ya sehemu za kaskazini mashariki na magharibi ya Marekani Jumatano asubuhi ulikuwa wa ajabu sana kwa Marekani. Kwa watu wengi ulimwenguni, hilo lingekuwa jambo la kawaida. Miji ya Asia, Afrika na Amerika ya Kusini imekuwa na uchafuzi wa hewa kwa muda mrefu hivi kwamba viwango vya hewa kama vile vilivyotarajiwa Jumatano katika sehemu za jimbo la New York, ambavyo vinatarajiwa kuwa hatari kwa watu wenye matatizo ya kupumua, havitaonekana kama sababu ya kuogopesha. "Huenda wageni wanaweza kuhisi, lakini kwangu, ni hewa ya kawaida ninayopumua kila siku, ""alisema Paiboon Kaewklangrong, dereva wa teksi huko Bangkok, Jumatano." Imechafuliwa, ni moto, ina vumbi. Lakini ndivyo ilivyo. Katika utafiti uliofanywa kabla ya janga hilo, Shirika la Afya Duniani (WHO) limegundua kuwa asilimia 99 ya watu duniani wanaishi katika maeneo ambayo hayakidhi miongozo yake ya ubora wa hewa. Hewa mbaya inaweza kuwa hatari, hasa ikiwa umekuwa ukiipumua maisha yako yote. Madhara ya muda mfupi yanatia ndani kikohozi, msukosuko, na uvimbe. Kuathiriwa kwa muda mrefu kunaweza kuharibu ini na ubongo na kuongeza hatari ya kuganda kwa damu ambayo inaweza kusababisha mshtuko wa moyo. "Hata hivyo, moshi unaotokana na moto wa mwituni unaweza kuunganishwa na moshi wa magari, viwanda na vyumba vya moto katika maeneo ya mijini, ""alisema Rajasekhar Balasubramanian, mtaalamu wa ubora wa hewa katika Chuo Kikuu cha Taifa cha Singapore." Kwa hiyo ni busara kudhani kwamba PM katika ukungu wa moshi ni sumu zaidi kuliko PM ya kawaida ya mijini, alisema. WHO inakadiria kuwa athari za uchafuzi wa hewa wa nje na wa nyumbani zinahusishwa na vifo vya karibu milioni 6.7 kila mwaka ulimwenguni, haswa katika nchi zenye mapato ya chini na ya kati. Asia Kusini ina miji tisa kati ya kumi yenye hewa mbaya zaidi duniani na uchafuzi wa hewa unaosababisha vifo vya mapema vya watu milioni mbili kila mwaka, Benki ya Dunia imesema katika ripoti yake ya hivi karibuni. Uchafuzi wa mazingira ni sehemu ya uzalishaji kutoka kwa magari na viwanda vikubwa, lakini pia kutoka kwa tanuru za matofali, mashamba ya kuchoma na vyanzo vingine. Watu kutoka kwa familia maskini, ambao hutumia sehemu kubwa ya maisha yao nje na hawawezi kumudu vichungi vya hewa, huwa wanakabiliwa na hatari kubwa zaidi. Katika Asia ya Mashariki, miaka ya uchafuzi wa hewa wa muda mrefu ni sababu moja kwa nini kuvaa vinyago vya uso ilikuwa ya kawaida kabla ya janga la coronavirus. Watoto wa shule wamezoea kucheza ndani ya nyumba siku za hali mbaya ya hewa. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""hewa mbaya"" ni neno la kawaida la vumbi laini, na viwango vyake vinaonyeshwa kwa wakati halisi katika vituo vya gari moshi, vituo vya basi na lifti." """Ninajua kwamba vumbi ni tatizo na sifikiri mara mbili juu ya hilo tena,"" alisema Lee Hyung-ko, mwanafunzi wa chuo kikuu katika Seoul, mji mkuu wa Korea Kusini." Haitakwenda mbali hivi karibuni, kwa hiyo ni lazima tuishi na hali hiyo. Uchafuzi wa hewa waweza pia kuathiri sana siasa. Katika Korea Kusini, viongozi wanaotaka kuwa marais wamefanya kupunguza uchafuzi wa hewa kuwa sehemu ya programu zao za uchaguzi. Smog ya Beijing na miji mingine ya China imedaiwa kuwa ni kosa la uongozi. Moshi unaotokana na moto wa misitu na mchanga nchini Indonesia unaelekea kusababisha hasira za nchi jirani. Nyakati nyingine shinikizo la kisiasa juu ya hewa mbaya husababisha mabadiliko yanayoonekana. Kuanzia mwishoni mwa miaka ya 1980, wakati Mexico City ilipokabiliwa na ukosoaji wa kimataifa kwa hewa yake mbaya, jiji na serikali ya jimbo jirani ilichukua hatua mbalimbali, kama vile kupunguza idadi ya siku ambazo magari yaliruhusiwa barabarani kila wiki na kufunga kiwanda cha kusafisha cha mijini. Marekebisho hayo yalifanikiwa: hewa ya jiji iliboreshwa sana. Katika visa vingine, hewa ya mijini imeboreshwa kwa sababu ya jambo ambalo hakuna mtu aliyetazamia. "Kwa mfano, katika mji wa Bangkok, kama ilivyo katika New Delhi na miji mingine, hewa katika mji huo wenye watu milioni 11 imeboreshwa sana wakati wa janga la coronavirus, ""alisema Paiboon, dereva wa teksi ambaye amekuwa akiendesha teksi kwa miaka 18." Sasa mambo yamerudi kwa kawaida. Ukiongoza gari mapema asubuhi kwenye barabara kuu, unaweza kuona kwamba kuna ukungu, alisema. Inaonekana kama ukungu, lakini si hivyo. Zote ni chembechembe za vumbi. #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki #Mashabiki