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Thailand’s air pollution drives millions to the doctor: “I cough so much »
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Sylvie Claire / April 20, 2023
In Thailand, about 2.4 million people have suffered health problems related to air pollution since the beginning of the year, said health authorities in the country where some regions are suffocating under a toxic cloud.
Poor air quality has prompted 2.4 million people to seek medical attention since January, with 184,465 hospital admissions this week alone, Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, permanent secretary of the public health department, said Wednesday.
According to the air quality monitoring company IQAir, Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai were among the most polluted cities in the world on Thursday morning.
Dr. Opas said that respiratory problems, dermatitis, eye inflammation and sore throats were among the most common reasons for visits.
Health officials urged people to use high-quality N95 pollution masks, close windows and doors, spend as little time as possible outdoors and exercise indoors.
“Today it’s so smoggy. I’m coughing so much,” said one user on Facebook. “My throat is sore. I took a Covid test but this is not it. When I see the level of pollution, it could be that. »
The toxic “smog” is linked to smoke from forest fires and stubble burning by farmers, experts say, as well as vehicle and industrial emissions.
Thailand has a population of more than 70 million and poor air quality has become a hot topic in the run-up to the May 14elections, with the outgoing government accused of not doing enough to tackle the problem.
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Sylvie Claire / September 23, 2023
At least 25 people, including two children, died when a bus crashed into a ravine in the Andean region of Huancavelica, in southern Peru, the authorities announced in a revised death toll on Monday evening.
An initial police report put the death toll at 20, with a further 35 injured. A statement from the Ministry of Health later that morning put the death toll at 24. Finally, at the end of the day on Monday, the death toll stood at “25 dead and 34 wounded”, according to the Ministry of Defense.
The accident occurred on Sunday night, when the bus carrying over 50 passengers from Huanta in Ayacucho to Huancayo in the Junin region ran off the road.
Images show the damaged bus lying on its side near a river below the ravine, debris and personal belongings strewn all around.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte expressed her “condolences to the families” from New York, where she will be attending the 78th General Assembly of the United Nations. The Peruvian Episcopal Conference, for its part, urged the government to “carry out a serious investigation” to prevent such accidents from happening again.
On August 13, another accident in the same region left 13 people dead and 5 seriously injured.
Road accidents are frequent in Peru, mainly due to speeding and poor road maintenance, especially in mountainous areas.
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Sylvie Claire / September 17, 2023
In Japan, the number of people aged 100 has reached a record level: the world’s third-largest economy now has 92,139 people aged 100 or over. That’s 1,613 more than a year ago, reported the Ministry of Health in Tokyo on Friday.
For over half a century, the number of people aged 100 has been rising every year. Due to a low birth rate and almost non-existent immigration, no other industrial state is aging as fast as this East Asian country.
Japan’s population is also shrinking at a record pace. Last year, the number of Japanese fell by 801,000, the biggest drop since comparable data have been recorded. There are now 122.4 million.
When the Japanese Ministry of Health began compiling statistics in 1963, there were 153 centenarians. Twenty-five years later, there were over 10,000. According to the latest figures, around 88% of centenarians are women. Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world. Life expectancy for women is around 87 years, and 81 for men.
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Steph Deschamps / September 17, 2023
The death toll from the earthquake in Morocco has risen to 2,946, the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday evening. A further 5,674 people were injured.
The previous death toll was 2,901. The death toll is expected to rise further. Hopes of finding survivors are now very slim. Rescue workers have not yet been able to reach all the villages affected in the Atlas Mountains.
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the country on Friday night. The epicenter was located some 80 kilometers southwest of Marrakech. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 300,000 people in and around Marrakech were affected by the disaster.
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