World News
Air pollution still kills 1,200 children and adolescents per year in Europe
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Sylvie Claire / April 24, 2023
Even if the situation is improving, air pollution still kills 1,200 children and adolescents per year in Europe, concludes a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
As for adults, this pollution is the main environmental risk for the health of minors and reduces their life expectancy, according to this study of some thirty countries on the continent, including the 27 EU member states.
“Air pollution causes more than 1,200 premature deaths per year in Europe’s under-18s and significantly increases the risk of disease later in life,” the EEA wrote in its report.
“Despite progress over the past years, the level of several of the main air pollutants continues to remain above the recommendations of the World Health Organization, especially in central and eastern Europe, as well as in Italy, “said the organization dependent on the European Union. The plain of the Po in Italy, the zones close to the big coal power stations as well as the big cities of the center and the east of the continent are regularly pinned for the bad quality of their air.
Several European countries – including the United Kingdom and Ukraine – were not included in the study, suggesting that the continental picture is actually bleaker.
According to another report published by the EEA in November, at least 238,000 people – of all ages – died prematurely in 2020 in Europe due to air pollution in the agency’s member countries (the European Union, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein).
Although the share of children and adolescents impacted by air pollution is “relatively small” compared to the overall population, dying so early “represents a loss of potential future as well as a significant burden of chronic disease both in childhood and later in life,” the EEA says. The agency recommends focusing on air quality around schools and day care centers, as well as sports facilities and public transportation.
Its effects begin before birth, with maternal exposure to air pollution “linked to low birth weights and premature births,” the environmental agency said.
After birth, ambient pollution increases the risk of several health problems, including asthma – which affects 9% of children and adolescents in Europe – or respiratory insufficiency and infections, the agency also stresses. These effects are aggravated by the fact that children are physically more active than adults and that their small size brings them closer to pollution, especially car exhaust fumes.
All ages combined, 97% of the urban population were exposed in 2021 to air that did not meet WHO guidelines, according to the latest data released Monday.
In its November report, however, the EEA noted that the European Union was on track to meet its target of reducing premature deaths by more than 50% by 2030 compared to 2005.
In the early 1990s, fine particles caused nearly one million premature deaths in the 27 EU countries. In 2005, 431,000 people were still dying, according to the agency’s data.
However, the European situation remains better than elsewhere on the planet: according to the WHO, air pollution is the cause of seven million premature deaths per year in the world, a toll close to that caused by smoking or poor nutrition. Several hundreds of thousands of these deaths concern children under 15 years old, according to the UN organization.
These heavy assessments had led it in September 2021 to establish more binding limits for the main air pollutants, for the first time since 2005.
The most serious air pollution comes first from fine particles, which penetrate deep into the lungs. This is followed by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3), according to health agencies.
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Eva Deschamps / June 1, 2023
The three astronauts’ stay is scheduled to last six months, and marks a new stage in the progress of Beijing’s space program.
On Tuesday May 30, China sent three new astronauts to its Tiangong space station, including for the first time a civilian. This is a valuable experience for the Asian giant, which has reaffirmed its desire to send a Chinese astronaut to the Moon by 2030, a major objective of a space program that has been progressing steadily for several decades.
The trio on the Shenzhou-16 mission lifted off aboard a Long March 2F rocket at 9:31 a.m. local time from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi Desert, according to AFP reporters on site. The launch was a “total success” and the “astronauts are in good shape”, said Zou Lipeng, director of the launch center.
Mission commander, veteran engineer Jing Haipeng, on his fourth space flight, is accompanied by engineer Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao, a professor and the first Chinese civilian in space. A specialist in space science and engineering, Haichao will be in charge of experiments on the station. He does not come from the armed forces, as has always been the case until now. Their stay in Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace” in Chinese) is scheduled to last six months.
World News
The big announcement tonight: North Korea confirms launch of military spy satellite in June
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Sylvie Claire / June 1, 2023
North Korea confirmed on Tuesday that it will launch a military spy satellite in June, in order to “confront dangerous US military actions”, according to the official KCNA agency.
The “military reconnaissance satellite number 1” will be “launched in June”, in order to “confront the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals”, according to Ri Pyong Chol, vice-chairman of the ruling party’s Central Military Commission, quoted by KCNA.
On Monday, Japan announced that it had been informed by North Korea of a forthcoming satellite launch, a project which the Japanese government believed to conceal a ballistic missile launch.
According to Tokyo, Pyongyang has told the Japanese coastguard that a rocket will be launched between May 31 and June 11, and is expected to land in an area near the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and east of Luzon Island in the Philippines.
North Korea has already tested ballistic missiles in 2012 and 2016, which it described as satellite launches and which flew over the island department of Okinawa in southern Japan.
The development of a reconnaissance satellite was one of Pyongyang’s key defense projects unveiled last year by Kim Jong Un.
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Steph Deschamps / June 1, 2023
On Tuesday, China will send a civilian astronaut into space for the first time in its history on a manned mission to the Tiangong space station, the China Human Spaceflight Agency announced.
This astronaut, Gui Haichao, a “payload specialist”, is “a professor at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics”, Lin Xiqiang, spokesman for the space agency, told a press conference on Monday.
Until now, all Chinese astronauts who have launched into space have been members of the People’s Liberation Army.
Mr. Gui will be “mainly responsible for in-orbit management of payloads” dedicated to space science experiments, the spokesman said.
The civilian astronaut will orbit alongside Shenzhou-16 mission commander Jing Haipeng and astronaut Zhu Yangzhu.
The crew is due to take off from the Jiuquan launch base in northwest China at 09:31 local time, according to the space agency.
Projects linked to China’s “space dream” are multiplying under the presidency of Xi Jinping.
The Asian giant has been investing billions of euros in its military-led space program for several decades, enabling it to make up most of the ground lost to the Americans and Russians.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and its Tiangong (“Celestial Palace”) space station has been fully operational since late 2022. In 2019, a Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Then, in 2021, China landed a small robot on the surface of Mars. China plans to send its first crew to the Moon by 2029.
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