Air pollution in Bangkok has caused an estimated 6,800 deaths and an economic loss of $2.6 billion USD in 2020, according to data released by environmental groups earlier this week.
An interesting contrast with the number of COVID victims (30) and only 58 throughout the country during the same period, that has caused fear and panic across the government.
In fact Bangkok has recorded just 2015 COVID cases, 1985 of whom have fully recovered and yet the geniuses in government locked the country down and ruined the lives of millions out of fear – of what?
Where, you may ask, is their fear of the air quality their incompetence creates in the cites and rural north?
The data, released online by the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the real time air quality monitor IQAir Air Visual, measures smog in 28 major cities worldwide and uses models devised by the Global Burden of Disease research programme to estimate the health impact.
Increased levels of air pollution are linked with numerous diseases including heart disease and lung cancer.
The economic impact of air pollution was calculated by estimating work absences and years lost due to illness on a per capita basis.
According to the data, Bangkok saw an estimated 6,800 deaths from 1 January to 30 June.
Elsewhere, the data estimated that 29,000 deaths in Tokyo in 2020 are linked to air pollution, resulting in an economic cost of US$32 billion.
In China, air pollution levels in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou is responsible for a combined 59,000 deaths and US$27.7 billion in losses.
In India, despite the country recording its first drop in carbon emissions in almost forty years, Delhi suffered an estimated 24,000 deaths due to its air pollution, as well as taking a US$3.6 billion hit to the economy.
“In mere months, major cities around the world have lost tens of thousands of lives and well into the tens of billions of dollars in economic productivity”, the report said.
“Powered by data from the IQAir AirVisual air quality data platform, the Cost of Air Pollution Counter tracks the amount of lives lost and economic productivity (as calculated in gross domestic product, or GDP) in real time as of the beginning of the calendar year”.
“The counter’s algorithm combines real-time measurement data of ground-level air quality managed by the IQAir AirVisual air quality database with scientific risk models as well as population and health data to estimate how costly air pollution from PM2.5 and NO2 has been since January 1, 2020”.
According to the data, 4.5 million premature deaths each year due to air pollution from fossil fuels, including 40,000 deaths of children under five.
