Cristina Martínez, María Neira and Sarai Quirós at the 55th Separ Congress in Pamplona.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for neumologos of the National Health System (SNS) take an active part in prevention actions related to air quality as a measure to improve the quality of life of respiratory patients, which also implies participating in the monitoring of these parameters in the main Spanish cities.
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María Neira (WHO): “We need your help.” |
The Director of Public Health and the Environment of the WHO, Maria Neira, has transferred this request directly to the specialists within the 55th National Congress of Pulmonology and Respiratory Surgery (Separ) which has been held in Pamplona. “We need you to help us” raised during a speech in which he reviewed the latest international advances in this strategy.
The WHO spokesperson has justified this request with some of the latest data on the impact of air pollution on public health. According to her estimates, addressing environmental factors could reduce up to 25 percent annual morbidity and mortality, which would translate to 13 million fewer deaths on the planet every year.
“People who passively breathe highly polluted air would be more vulnerable to any respiratory agent. Logic explains it, but now we have more and more scientific evidence.” added Neira.
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María Neira, director of Public Health and the Environment of the WHO, at the 55th Separ Congress. |
Faced with this situation, the Director of Public Health of the WHO has encouraged all Spanish pulmonologists to also take sides in the air quality measurements to know, for example, the number of particles PM2.5 (diameter less than 2.5 microns) in real time. And he has even given as an example some parts of the country such as Madrid for its high concentration. “You should know the levels at all times”has pointed.
More preventive medicine in air quality
Neira has also asked the specialists to take charge of making a greater educational and prevention work in their consultations with the promotion of the guidelines in this regard that the WHO published in September 2021. Set an example by going to the hospital in bicycle or leaving to smoke These are other keys that he has placed on the doctors’ table. “You pulmonologists are the ones who have the most motivation to fight against environmental contamination and accelerate that transition to clean energyhas pointed.
Neira has placed air quality as one of the fundamental commitments of the WHO to improve public health levels on a global scale, in the same way that after the Second World War the main European countries conspired to guarantee the sewage and access to drinking water in their territories.
María Neira and Cristina Martínez, coordinator of the EROM Area of Separ. |
“Last year we went to the climate change summit with 45 million toilet signatures asking to attack the causes of climate change. Many are the same as air condition. We have to do it for health. It was one of the most read and respected documents“, has added.
The organization’s spokeswoman recalled that this strategy also needs to be transferred to the management of the hospitals, since they represent the 7 percent of total CO2 emissions into the atmosphere due to its high energy demand. “If it were a country, we would be among the top 10 polluters,” he pointed out.
Neira has also stressed the importance of all countries complying with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In addition to the requirements established for the reduction of polluting particles in the atmosphere, some additional measures related to health were also agreed, such as the promotion of sustainable diets.
Cristina Martinez; Maria Neira; and Sarai Quirós, coordinator of the Respiratory Infections and Tuberculosis Area of Separ. |
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