Research

The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health

For decades, pollution and its harmful effects on people’s health, the environment, and the planet have been neglected both by Governments and the international development agenda. Yet, pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths.

The Lancet Commission on pollution and health addresses the full health and economic costs of air, water, and soil pollution. Through analyses of existing and emerging data, the Commission reveals pollution’s severe and underreported contribution to the Global Burden of Disease. It uncovers the economic costs of pollution to low-income and middle-income countries.

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Rethinking Aid Allocation: Analysis of Official Development Spending on Modern Pollution Reduction

Authors: Stephanie Swinehart, Richard Fuller, Rachael Kupka, Marc N. Conte

Modern pollution – pollution attributable to industrialization and urbanization – is responsible for nearly 6 million deaths per year, more than all the deaths from HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis combined; yet it receives comparatively little attention in the international development agenda.

Based on reported ODA spending for 2016, the paper’s analysis shows an average investment of $14/death for modern pollution, compared with $1,250/death for malaria, $190/death for tuberculosis, and $165/death for HIV/AIDS.

Pollution prevention and climate change mitigation: measuring the health benefits of comprehensive interventions

Authors: Philip Landrigan, Richard Fuller, Andy Haines, Nick Watts,
Gina McCarthy

The Lancet Planetary Health, Vol 2, 2018

Global Health And Environmental Pollution

Author: Philip J. Landrigan , Richard Fuller

Published in the International Journal of Public Health. This was part of the special issue “Driving the Best Science to Meet Global Health Challenges” edited on the occasion of the 9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health 2015.

Environmental pollution—contamination of air, water and soil by human activity—is the largest cause of disease and death in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 8.9 million persons die each year of diseases caused by pollution, 8.4 million (94 %) of them in poor countries (WHO 2014a, b). By comparison, HIV/AIDS causes 1.5 million deaths per year (WHO2014c), and malaria and tuberculosis cause fewer than 1 million deaths each (WHO 2014d).

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Burden of Disease

Author: Kevin Chatham-Stephens, Jack Caravanos, Bret Ericson, Jennifer Sunga-Amparo, Budi Susilorini, Promila Sharma, Philip J. Landrigan and Richard Fuller

Burden of Disease from Toxic Waste Sites in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines in 2010.

Pediatric Burden of Disease

Author: Jack Caravanos, Kevin Chatham-Stephens, Bret Ericson, Philip Landrigan, Richard Fuller

The burden of disease from pediatric lead exposure at hazardous waste sites in 7 Asian countries.

Knowns and Unknowns on Burden of Disease Due to Chemicals: A Systematic Review

Author: Annette Prüss-Ustün, Carolyn Vickers, Pascal Haefliger, Roberto Bertollini

Toxics Sites Identification Program

Author: Bret Ericson, Jack Caravanos, Kevin Chatham-Stephens, Philip Landrigan, Richard Fuller

Approaches to systematic assessment if environmental exposures posed at hazardous waste sites in the developing world: The Toxics Sites Identification Program.

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