World Health Day is celebrated today. The Nefrocenter group has always prioritized health and has chosen top-level healthcare personnel and cutting-edge equipment for its facilities. Furthermore, Nefrocenter offers the possibility to access its facilities with personalized packages for those who want to undergo comprehensive check-ups, because prevention is the group’s primary tool.
This year, on the occasion of World Health Day 2022, the theme chosen by the WHO is “Our Planet, Our Health”.
April 7 is also an important date to raise awareness about the growth of diseases that worsen our quality of life, put it at risk, or are fatal. In recent years, Earth’s pollution has led to an increase in cases of cancer, asthma, and heart disease. The WHO wrote in its report: “In the midst of a pandemic, with a polluted planet, with increasing diseases such as cancer, asthma, and heart disease, on World Health Day 2022, we will focus global attention on the urgent actions needed to keep humans and the planet healthy and foster a movement to create a society centered on well-being.”
According to the WHO, preventable environmental causes have caused over 13 million deaths worldwide. The World Health Organization reiterates: “Over 90% of people breathe unhealthy air, resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. A warming world that is seeing mosquitoes spread diseases further from their place of origin and faster than ever. Extreme weather events, soil degradation, and water scarcity are displacing people and compromising their health. Pollution and plastic are found at the bottom of our deepest oceans and on the highest mountains and have made their way into our food chain. Systems that produce highly processed and unhealthy foods and beverages are driving a wave of obesity, increasing cancer and heart disease, and generating a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.”
Nine key points have been established to improve human health. A manifesto that the Nefrocenter group fully shares and which we report in detail:
1. Climate change is the biggest health threat to humanity. The impacts of climate change are already harming health due to air pollution, diseases, extreme weather events, forced displacement, food insecurity, and pressures on mental health. Every year, about 13 million people lose their lives due to environmental factors, and every minute 13 people die from cancer, heart attacks, and other heart diseases caused by air pollution.
2. Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement could save about one million lives a year worldwide by 2050 through air pollution reduction alone. Avoiding the worst climate impacts could help prevent an additional 250,000 climate-related deaths per year from 2030 to 2050, mainly from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress.
3. The value of health gains from reducing carbon emissions would be approximately double the global cost of implementing carbon mitigation measures.
4. Over 90 percent of people breathe unhealthy levels of air pollution, largely resulting from the burning of fossil fuels that drive climate change. In 2018, air pollution from fossil fuels caused $2.9 trillion in health and economic costs, about $8 billion a day.
5. Transportation produces about 20% of global carbon emissions. Alternatives such as walking and cycling are not only environmentally friendly but also offer greater health benefits, such as reducing the risk of many chronic health conditions and improving mental health.
6. Systems for producing, packaging, and distributing food generate a third of greenhouse gas emissions. More sustainable production would mitigate climate impacts. Supporting more nutritious diets could prevent nearly 11 million premature deaths in a year.
7. Health systems are the main line of defense for populations facing emerging health threats, including from climate change. To protect health and avoid widening health inequalities, countries must build climate-resilient health systems.
8. Most countries identify health as a priority sector vulnerable to climate change. But a huge financial gap remains. Less than 2% of multilateral climate finance goes to health projects.
9. Healthy societies rely on well-functioning ecosystems to provide clean air, fresh water, medicines, and food security. These help limit diseases and stabilize the climate. But biodiversity loss is occurring at an unprecedented rate, impacting human health worldwide and increasing the risk of emerging infectious diseases.