#BreatheLife Campaign Updates 

Highlights

Motorsport champion Lucas di Grassi joins the fight for clean air

Brazilian racecar driver Lucas di Grassi has announced his support for UN Environment’s work to reduce air pollution – the single biggest environmental health risk of our time. Di Grassi is the reigning champion of Formula E, the auto racing series that uses only electric-powered cars. In his new role as UN Environment Clean Air Advocate, Di Grassi will help to spread the messages of the BreatheLife campaign.
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Youth spring to action against air pollution in the world’s coldest national capital

Fifteen-year-old Erdenechimeg puts on her school uniform, a jumper and her snug parka, and sets off on her daily walk to school. In winter, when residents in traditional houses burn raw coal to ward against sub-zero temperatures, the high school student cringes when she turns on her mobile phone flashlight to light her way-- pollution dust is saturates the beam. She is one of the thousands of urban youths the Mongolian government hopes to engage as environmental champions with a number of intended roles, as part of its efforts as a member country of the BreatheLife campaign to reduce deaths from air pollution.
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Jumpstart your BreatheLife Challenge: Tips for Week One
No matter what mode of travel you’ll be using on your Challenge, here is a quick guide to get pumped for your first week.
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Keep your BreatheLife Challenge alive with these six tips
Big cheers to you for sticking with the challenge, but in case your motivation is flagging, the BreatheLife team and our enthusiastic partner Pacer, the world’s most downloaded daily activity tracking app for iOS and Android, offer some tried and tested tips for sticking with the challenge.
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The Paris Agreement on climate change is a health agreement: World Health Organization
We have a unique opportunity to get climate change and health right if we get air pollution right.The World Health Organization sent this message at the mid-point of the current, fortnight-long Bonn Climate Change Conference, as it released its latest air pollution data. That data showed that exposure to air pollution kills 7 million people around the world, overwhelmingly in middle- and low-income countries. Many of the pollutants that are responsible for these deaths are also strong “climate forcing” agents: they add their considerable muscle to carbon dioxide emissions to “force” global temperature rise.
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Governments should ensure most vulnerable have access to clean energy: WHO

Almost half the world population still cooks, heats and lights their homes with very polluting fuels like vegetal (raw) coal and wood, putting them at risk of becoming one of the 3.8 million people who die from exposure to air pollution each year. Director of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization, Dr Maria Neira, believes governments need to make sure that these people have access to clean energy.
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Science Report  

Nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air

Nine out of ten people worldwide breathe polluted air, which causes a whopping seven million deaths, largely in low- to middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization. Its latest comprehensive, multi-city study of the health burden of ambient (outdoor) and indoor air pollution found that 4.2 million were caused by ambient or outdoor air pollution, while an estimated 3.8 million were caused by cooking with polluting fuels and technologies. A study released by the Health Effects Institute two weeks before the WHO study put the proportion of the world's population breathing unsafe air at 95 per cent. 

More than 4 in 10 Americans live with unhealthy air

Ozone pollution worsened significantly due to warmer temperatures, while particle pollution generally continued to improve in 2014-2016, according to the American Lung Association's 2018 "State of the Air" report. The 19th annual national air quality "report card" found that 133.9 million Americans—more than four in 10 (41.4 percent)—lived in counties with unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution in 2014-2016, placing them at risk for premature death and other serious health effects such as lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm.

PM2.5 exposure linked to more respiratory infections at any age

Young and older children and adults exposed to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) over short periods (between one and four weeks) were more likely to seek medical help for acute lower respiratory infection, a large sample study of city dwellers found. 

Increased Alzheimer's risk in children and young adults living in polluted megacities

A new study has found increased risks for Alzheimer's and suicide among children and young adults living in polluted megacities. The researchers studied 203 autopsies of Mexico City residents ranging in age from 11 months to 40 years. Metropolitan Mexico City is home to 24 million people exposed daily to concentrations of fine particulate matter and ozone above U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. They tracked two abnormal proteins that indicated development of Alzheimer's, and detected the early stages of the disease in babies less than a year old.

Inhaling PM2.5 while pregnant linked to kids with high blood pressure

Evidence continues to mount of the negative effects of PM2.5 exposure on foetuses. A study of 1,293 mothers in Boston found that women who breathe air polluted with ultra fine particles (PM2.5) during their third trimester of pregnancy may be more likely to have children who go on to develop high blood pressure. 

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