India tops child mortality, toxic gas fumes and air pollution

Smoking is injurious to health because it causes cancer. This tag line is well known to all of us. Let it be written in a wider sense as per the demands of the time.

Rising global warming, melting ice, climate change, and sea pollution have brought human civilization into the era of the “sixth mass extinction.” And among the environmental pollution of different things, only air pollution has had a profound effect on the life of the society.

In this article, we will look at the harmful effects of air pollution on our lives and even on new-born babies. In this discussion we will also bring up the aspect of how the crucial role of mothers in childbirth and rearing is being harmed due to the destruction of billions of beneficial bacteria and microorganisms. we will try to find out how much the children of nature are being raised by nature today.

Air pollution and infant mortality:

Let’s keep an eye on some recently published news. A worldwide study report on the relationship between death and health and air pollution has been published recently (State of Global Air, 2020). The gist of the report is that in 2019 alone, at least half a million new-borns worldwide lost their lives to polluted air; most of them are in developing countries like India.

The report says that air pollution is having a terrible effect on unborn children. As a result, the birth rate of premature babies is increasing and the infant mortality rate is increasing. The effects of air pollution on the elderly have long been considered by health experts. But this is the first time such a detailed study on child mortality has been conducted worldwide. See the list below for details.

What health experts say:

Katherine Walker (principal scientist of the Health Effects Institute) has linked the pandemic to the massive infant mortality rate in a report published in a number of studies in different countries. Dan Greenbaum, president of the organization, writes: “Babies are born with very high levels of pollution. Low birth weight babies are exposed to a variety of infections, including pneumonia.” Their lungs are not forming and growing properly,” he said.

“Indoor air pollution in countries like India, Southeast Asia and Africa is equivalent to Victorian-era London,” said Beate Ritz (University of California), a research scientist on epilepsy.

He added: “Even if the affected children survive, they are suffering extensive damage to various parts of the body, including the brain. So we have to solve air pollution at any cost. “

The problem is compounded by indoor pollution, black toxic gas fumes from factories and vehicles, and overcrowding. According to the data, at least 6.7 million people died in the world in 2019 due to air pollution alone and due to it, many complex lung diseases including stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer have increased at an excessive rate.

In India this number was about 1.7 million. Of the 122 major cities in India, 2.5 particulate matters were found in 59 cities. It shows that Noida and Delhi are at the top of air pollution. The situation there is terrible. Among the other polluted cities, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarpur, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Howrah and Kolkata are in dire straits (The Indian Express, 29.10.20).

Due to massive fireworks during Dussehra, the number of floating pollutants with a radius of ten microns in more than one city, including Delhi, has more than doubled.

Another report (Air Quality Life Index, 2020-Energy Policy Institute, University of Chicago). It is known that the life expectancy of a quarter of the people living in the Gangetic valley is declining by an average of ten years due to massive air pollution. Neighbouring Bangladesh is in the later stages of its impact.

Added to this is the fact that millions of vehicles and thousands of factories are exposed to the toxic fumes of gas due to low air circulation and velocity in winter – the cities are transformed into gas chambers.

Most recently (22.12.2020) the report of “The India State-level Disease Burden Initiative” was published. Research reports on the effects of air pollution on health and the economy have revealed bone-chilling information.

The main premise is that in 2019, 1.7 million people died in India due to air pollution alone, which is 16 percent of the total deaths in the country. And because of this, the country’s financial loss has been a total of 2.6 lakh crore. Our next generation is moving towards a terrible future.

Air pollution and instability in the mental world:

Medical researchers acknowledge that air pollution damages almost all parts of the body, including the lungs and heart, but there is another side to air pollution. Research has shown that nitrogen dioxide emitted from diesel vehicles increases the risk of mental health problems by 39 percent.

It is true that there are many more causes of mental illness. But it is clear from various research reports that the level of air pollution in every city in the developed countries is far above the guidelines of the World Health Organization and 90% of the world’s people drink polluted air.

As a result, a large proportion of people, including children, are suffering from physical illness as well as mental instability, anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

Dr. Ian Mudway, a professor at Imperial College London, wrote: “The incidence of mental illness is higher in cities. “Even if we can solve the socio-economic causes of the mental problem, air pollution in the city will remain.” This study is published in Social Psychology and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

Will you push for the destruction of green forests indiscriminately in the chariot of development, will you sit in the cold rooms of factories and more buildings and have more polluted air, or will you be busy dreaming of getting back clear air, free air? We promise to leave a pollution-free nature environment for our sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, whom we claim to love the most, at least now, or it will be too late.

In that gap, we try to find out why so many infant deaths occur within a few months of birth, even in the womb. Where is nature aversion, where is nature isolation taking us?

Nature and the role of mothers in childbirth and growth:

In the case of childbirth, the male sperm is used only to fertilize the female ovum. After such a role of men, women have made an immense contribution to the birth and growth of children. And in this process the natural environment is worthy.

Science says that there are 39 trillion beneficial bacteria in the human body. These billions of microorganisms enter the human intestine through the nose, ears and mouth. The placental microbiome is formed with a part of it.

In a woman’s womb, the embryo floats on the water surface of the placenta, which is nourished and protected by the placental microbiome. In the process of childbirth, these beneficial friend bacteria build up in the mother’s breast. Colostrum is a very valuable resource of nature. Whose benefits cannot be concluded.

First, new-borns accumulate large amounts of bilirubin. When a new-born is breastfed for the first time, these by-products are excreted in the baby’s feces (meconium).

Second, in addition to providing protein nutrition, colostrum makes antibodies and antibiotics in the baby’s body, which is a key factor in a child’s healthy growth. Feeding colostrum to a low birth weight new-born also helps in weight gain. Readers are more or less aware of the impossibility of feeding their babies exclusively for six months on their mother’s nutrition and growth.

So where is the problem?

Water-air pollution, marine pollution, algae blooms and dead-zones have caused billions of beneficial bacteria to disappear from nature. For the benefit of a handful of people and for the benefit of business, to destroy forests and burn forests without any justification, scientists and environmentalists fear that the group of zoonotic viruses is leaving the jungle and invading human bodies like locusts, which are likely to become more frequent in the near future. It also affects the mother’s body and the fetus.

On the other hand, the current corporate-run health system and the boom in baby food are depriving babies of drinking breast milk, including colostrum. We are getting the result in hand. Added to this are unnatural abnormal eating habits.

Canned milk instead of breast milk (!); Rice, bread, pulses, vegetables, fruits, fish, instead of eggs, piles of chocolate chips, cold drinks, pizza burgers, junk food and fast food, children are becoming obese. The result is premature obesity, digestive problems, diabetes.

Air-soil-water; Flowers-fruits-children are being raised by isolating them from birds by washing their hands repeatedly with disinfectant and soap in a closed marble room; Air-conditioned homes, cars and schools. Instead of growing up in the lap of nature, thousands of diseases, and abnormalities are appearing in the fate of these children who are isolated from nature. The result is what is happening.

Finally what we can say

In the age of finance-capital, indiscriminate plunder of nature is going on for the profit of multinational corporates. On the other hand, by isolating people from nature, they are being pushed more and more towards the unnecessary consumer goods made by them.

So in order for adults, including children, to survive, the conflict between nature and capital must be brought to the fore. We have to think anew. Billions of destroyed beneficial bacteria must be brought back to nature, otherwise, the number of thousands of diseases and deaths, including cancer, will increase day by day.

The use of fossil fuels must be reduced as quickly as possible; otherwise, the death toll from air pollution, including new-borns, will continue to lengthen.

We have to find a solution to the metabolic rift with equal importance to women and nature. That is why ecofeminism is coming to the fore today. Students, youths and women are also coming forward in the front row to save the nature of the men, it seems to raise some confidence and hope.