Deaths due to Chemical hazards

• During the Ministerial Dialogue at the Berlin Forum on Chemicals and Sustainability: Ambition and Action towards 2030, WHO Director-General has released an estimate of deaths due to chemical hazards.

Key points:

• Deaths due to exposure to hazardous chemicals worldwide rose 29 per cent in 2019 from what they were in 2016.
• Hazardous chemicals are present in the air, in consumer products, at the workplace, in water, or in the soil.
• They can cause several diseases including mental, behavioural and neurological disorders, cataracts, or asthma.
• Between 4,270 and 5,400 people died every day due to unintentional exposure to chemicals

Lead poisoning:

• It is responsible for nearly 45 per cent or close to half of these deaths in 2019
• Over 0.9 million people died from exposure to lead. Of these, close to 9 out of every 10 persons died from CVD due to lead exposure.
• The deaths due to lead exposure have also increased by a disturbing 67 per cent since 2016
• Lead is added to paints for various reasons, including enhancing the colour, reducing corrosion and decreasing the drying time.
• Only 41 per cent of countries including India have legally binding controls on the production, import, sale and use of lead paints

• It causes cardiovascular diseases (CVD), chronic kidney diseases and idiopathic intellectual disability.
• According to Unicef, at least 1 in 3 children — up to approximately 800 million globally — have blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL).
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from occupational exposure to particulates and cancers from occupational exposure to carcinogens too accounted for a substantial share of the preventable deaths.

Disability-adjusted Life-years Lost:

• In 2019, 53 million disability-adjusted life-years were lost. This is an increase by over 19% since 2016.
• There has been a 56% increase in disability-adjusted life-years lost due to exposure to lead since 2016.

Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs):

• It is the sum of the number of years of life lost due to premature death and a weighted measure of the years lived with disability due to a disease or injury.

Recommendations:

• need for regulation and effective governance of chemicals.
• need for a comprehensive law in the country to regulate chemical use, production and safety.
• Prevented by reducing or removing chemical exposure.
• Increase awareness about these hazardous chemicals