[Stoves] Air pollution kills

[Xavier Brandao]

Dear Crispin,

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

 ”1m premature deaths contributed to by things (in 51 categories) decided by a committee of experts is hardly the same as pointing to a murder weapon that killed an individual.”

Of course, it’s not. The latter is normally pretty easy to do. The former is indeed, a very complex statistical construct.

No one can tell for sure that air pollution is responsible of a specific number like 7 143 568 deaths, or 7 million, it may be difficult to even say “between 6 and 8 millions”.

But I think even before we talk about attribution and statistical construct by the WHO, we need to assess what might be the truth.

Because somewhere, there is a truth.

 

Let’s take Ulan Bator. There are 1.5 million inhabitants.

If all of them were using electrical heating and cooking, and driving bicycles instead of cars:

·         would we likely see less indoor and outdoor air pollution?

·         would we likely see less cases of respiratory infections like bronchitis, pneumonias, etc.?

·         would the respiratory infections cases likely be less acute?

·         would there likely be less cases of deaths due to a respiratory infection?

·         would the life expectancy of the population likely be higher?

 

Best,

 

Xavier

 

De : Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] De la part de Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
Envoyé : dimanche 6 mai 2018 22:57
À : Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Objet : Re: [Stoves] Air pollution kills

 

Dear Xavier

 

The difference between attribution of a contribution to a premature death and a ‘cause of death’ is that one is a statistical construct for a national population and the other is medical cause of death. There is no common ground.

 

1m premature deaths contributed to by things (in 51 categories) decided by a committee of experts is hardly the same as pointing to a murder weapon that killed an individual.

 

It may be that no one at all is killed by air pollution – it is just one of a number of contributions to medical conditions that one way or another, shorting one’s life with complications and consequences. A person may die during an asthma attack, and there may be air pollution around at the time.  Is that death caused by the air pollution, or the underlying condition of asthma? No one knows what causes asthma. The cleaner the air in North America, the more common asthma there is.  Is cleaner air contributing to the shortening of lives in North America? On the face of it, possibly.

 

Why do very few children who have contact with farm animals develop asthma? Do farm animals extend lives?

 

The problem is claims by organisations such as the WHO, again last week at the SE4ALL meeting in Lisbon, that “indoor air pollution kills 4.3m people per year”. The people making the claim know full well that it is actually asserted that IAP has been attributed to be a contributor to the shortening of 4.3m lives per year, not a ‘cause of death’ and they know that I know that they know. Yet they persist in this exaggerated claim.

 

Why? What is it they cannot achieve with the truth alone?

 

Regards

Crispin

 

 

 

Crispin, Nikhil,

 

The important question: is it likely that air pollution kills, or shortens lives if you prefer, of people living in cities?

 

I don’t know if the debate over the terms « killing » or « shortening life » is very relevant.

When someone shoots a 80-year old man, who was maybe meant to live until 81 years old only, you could say the shooter is not a killer, merely a life-shortener. If the shooter shoots a 12-month-old baby who was meant to live 81 years old, you could also say he shortened the baby’s life by 80 years. The baby was meant to die one day anyways.

Should the shooter of the old man only get a small prison sentence? After all, he only took 1 year from the old man’s life, maybe he only took 6 months or 2 months.

 

Let’s admit that yes, life is dangerous and full of uncertainties, and many factors have an impact on human’s health. But let’s admit we would rather limitate the impact air pollution has on human health. How likely is it that indoor air pollution has a large contribution to human deaths? Outdoor air pollution?

 

Best,


Xavier



---
L'absence de virus dans ce courrier électronique a été vérifiée par le logiciel antivirus Avast.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20180507/fd5dec69/attachment.html>