Air pollution is widening the gender gap. This International Women's Day, let us champion the right to breathe clean air for women everywhere.
Air pollution affects women's health
Polluted air is the single biggest environmental health risk of our time, and women are more likely to pay the heaviest price. Women are more likely to develop air pollution related diseases - from cancer, heart and lung diseases, and diabetes to dementia, Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. Polluted air also increases the risk of irregular menstrual cycles, infertility and gestational diabetes. Women are also 25% more likely to die from exposure to air pollution than men.
Cleaner air can save women's lives
Studies show that a minor increase in outdoor air pollution (PM2.5) raises women's risk of cardiovascular events by 24% and women's mortality risks associated with heart attacks or strokes by 76%.
Indoors, women are at higher risk too. Exposure to volatile organic compounds found in cleaning agents, detergents, cooking fumes and other household products increases women's risk of developing life-threatening disease. Women in developing countries experience the most damage from household air pollution from open fires and solid fuel-burning cook stoves. These spew soot and airborne contaminants into a not-well-ventilated room, sometimes at levels more than 100 times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization.
Imagine how many millions of women's lives could be saved if governments around the world worked harder to improve air quality.
No gender equality without clean air
Enabling women represents the single biggest opportunity for human development and economic growth. But progress is slow. The United Nations aims to achieve gender equality by 2030 through empowering women through its Sustainable Development Goal #5. But the World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap Report estimates that gender equality can only be achieved in 217 years. One of the most challenging areas, the report states, is addressing women's health.
A gender-equal world is one in which women can breathe clean air. Improving air quality worldwide, educating women about the risks of pollution-related diseases, and providing them with tools to effect change can lift the global economy and make the world a better place.
The time is now. This International Women's Day, let's get to work.
