In addition, the Assembly endorsed a wide range of measures to promote health equity, reduce air pollution, and strengthen protections for vulnerable populations.
“The words ‘historic’ and ‘landmark’ are overused, but they are perfectly apt to describe this year’s World Health Assembly,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the Assembly’s closing, ending nine days of intense debate and decisions.
The agreement, seen as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve global preparedness and response to future pandemics, aims to strengthen international coordination, enhance equity in access to medical tools and ensure that no country is left behind in future health crises.
A key next step will be consultations on access to pathogen and benefit-sharing, which seeks to guarantee equitable sharing of medical countermeasures derived from pathogens.
Boost for WHO budget
Another major outcome was the approval of a 20 per cent increase in assessed contributions – the core, mandatory funding from Member States that underpins WHO’s work.
By 2030-2031, these contributions will cover 50 per cent of the agency’s core budget, a crucial step toward financial sustainability.
Health leaders also pledged at least $210 million to WHO’s ongoing Investment Round, adding to the $1.7 billion already raised and expanding the agency’s donor base.
For the first time, nations adopted global resolutions on lung and kidney health, aligning with the growing recognition of noncommunicable diseases as a global priority.
Countries also set an ambitious new target to halve the health impacts of air pollution by 2040 and in an innovative move, adopted a resolution on social connection, acknowledging mounting evidence linking social isolation to poor health outcomes.
They also endorsed measures to combat the digital marketing of formula milk and baby foods, and addressed rare diseases, a lead-free future and the eradication of Guinea worm disease.
Delegates meeting in a committee at the 78th World Health Assembly.
History is made
In conclusion, Director-General Tedros urged countries to continue the momentum beyond the Assembly, highlighting the spirit of cooperation and commitment to health for all.
“You, the nations of the world, made history,” he said.
“Yes, there is conflict in our world, but you have shown that there is also cooperation. Yes, there is inequity, but you have shown a commitment to equity. Yes, there is disease, but you have shown a commitment to health – health for all.”
The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to University of Cambridge researchers. These particles are so small that they are likely being underestimated in surveys of pollution in the world’s oldest metro system.
The researchers carried out a new type of pollution analysis, using magnetism to study dust samples from Underground ticket halls, platforms and operator cabins.
The team found that the samples contained high levels of a type of iron oxide called maghemite. Since it takes time for iron to oxidise into maghemite, the results suggest that pollution particles are suspended for long periods, due to poor ventilation throughout the Underground, particularly on station platforms.
Some of the particles are as small as five nanometres in diameter: small enough to be inhaled and end up in the bloodstream, but too small to be captured by typical methods of pollution monitoring. However, it is not clear whether these particles pose a health risk.
Other studies have looked at overall pollution levels on the Underground and the associated health risks, but this is the first time that the size and type of particles has been analysed in detail. The researchers suggest that periodic removal of dust from Underground tunnels, as well as magnetic monitoring of pollution levels, could improve air quality throughout the network. Their results are reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
The London Underground carries five million passengers per day. Multiple studies have shown that air pollution levels on the Underground are higher than those in London more broadly, and beyond the World Health Organization’s (WHO) defined limits. Earlier studies have also suggested that most of the particulate matter on the Underground is generated as the wheels, tracks and brakes grind against one another, throwing up tiny, iron-rich particles.
“Since most of these air pollution particles are metallic, the Underground is an ideal place to test whether magnetism can be an effective way to monitor pollution,” said Professor Richard Harrison from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, the paper’s senior author. “Normally, we study magnetism as it relates to planets, but we decided to explore how those techniques could be applied to different areas, including air pollution.”
Pollution levels are normally monitored using standard air filters, but these cannot capture ultrafine particles, and they do not detect what kinds of particles are contained within the particulate matter.
“I started studying environmental magnetism as part of my PhD, looking at whether low-cost monitoring techniques could be used to characterise pollution levels and sources,” said lead author Hassan Sheikh from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “The Underground is a well-defined micro-environment, so it’s an ideal place to do this type of study.”
Working with colleagues from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, Sheikh and Harrison analysed 39 dust samples from the London Underground, provided by Transport for London (TfL). The samples were collected in 2019 and 2021 from platforms, ticket halls, and train operator cabins on the Piccadilly, Northern, Central, Bakerloo, Victoria, Northern, District and Jubilee lines. The sampling included major stations such as King’s Cross St Pancras, Paddington, and Oxford Circus.
The researchers used magnetic fingerprinting, 3D imaging and nanoscale microscopy to characterise the structure, size, shape, composition and magnetic properties of particles contained in the samples. Earlier studies have shown that 50% of the pollution particles in the Underground are iron-rich, but the Cambridge team were able to look in much closer detail. They found a high abundance of maghemite particles, ranging in diameter from five to 500 nanometres, and with an average diameter of 10 nanometres. Some particles formed larger clusters with diameters between 100 and 2,000 nanometres.
“The abundance of these very fine particles was surprising,” said Sheikh. “The magnetic properties of iron oxides fundamentally change as the particle size changes. In addition, the size range where those changes happen is the same as where air pollution becomes a health risk.”
While the researchers did not look at whether these maghemite particles pose a direct health risk, they say that their characterisation methods could be useful in future studies.
“If you’re going to answer the question of whether these particles are bad for your health, you first need to know what the particles are made of and what their properties are,” said Sheikh.
“Our techniques give a much more refined picture of pollution in the Underground,” said Harrison. “We can measure particles that are small enough to be inhaled and enter the bloodstream. Typical pollution monitoring doesn’t give you a good picture of the very small stuff.”
The researchers say that due to poor ventilation in the Underground, iron-rich dust can be resuspended in the air when trains arrive at platforms, making the air quality on platforms worse than in ticket halls or in operator cabins.
Given the magnetic nature of the resuspended dust, the researchers suggest that an efficient removal system might be magnetic filters in ventilation, cleaning of the tracks and tunnel walls, or placing screen doors between platforms and trains.
The cities of the ancient Maya in Mesoamerica never fail to impress. But beneath the soil surface, an unexpected danger lurks there: mercury pollution. In a review article in Frontiers in Environmental Science, researchers conclude that this pollution isn’t modern: it’s due to the frequent use of mercury and mercury-containing products by the Maya of the Classic Period, between 250 and 1100 CE. This pollution is in places so heavy that even today, it pose a potential health hazard for unwary archeologists.
Lead author Dr Duncan Cook, an associate professor of Geography at the Australian Catholic University, said: “Mercury pollution in the environment is usually found in contemporary urban areas and industrial landscapes. Discovering mercury buried deep in soils and sediments in ancient Maya cities is difficult to explain, until we begin to consider the archeology of the region which tells us that the Maya were using mercury for centuries.”
Ancient anthropogenic pollution
For the first time, Cook and colleagues here reviewed all data on mercury concentrations in soil and sediments at archeological sites across the ancient Maya world. They show that at sites from the Classical Period for which measurements are available – Chunchumil in today’s Mexico, Marco Gonzales, Chan b’i, and Actuncan in Belize, La Corona, Tikal, Petén Itzá, Piedras Negras, and Cancuén in Guatemala, Palmarejo in Honduras, and Cerén, a Mesoamerican ‘Pompeii’, in El Salvador –mercury pollution is detectable everywhere except at Chan b’i.
Concentrations range from 0.016 ppm at Actuncan to an extraordinary 17.16 ppm at Tikal. For comparison, the Toxic Effect Threshold (TET) for mercury in sediments is defined as 1 ppm.
Heavy users of mercury
What caused this prehistoric mercury pollution? The authors highlight that sealed vessels filled with ‘elemental’ (ie, liquid) mercury have been found at several Maya sites, for example Quiriqua in Guatemala, El Paraíso in Honduras, and the former multi-ethnic megacity Teotihucan in Central Mexico. Elsewhere in the Maya region, archeologists have found objects painted with mercury-containing paints, mainly made from the mineral cinnabar.
The authors conclude that the ancient Maya frequently used cinnabar and mercury-containing paints and powders for decoration. This mercury could then have leached from patios, floor areas, walls, and ceramics, and subsequently spread into the soil and water.
“For the Maya, objects could contain ch’ulel, or soul-force, which resided in blood. Hence, the brilliant red pigment of cinnabar was an invaluable and sacred substance, but unbeknownst to them it was also deadly and its legacy persists in soils and sediments around ancient Maya sites,” said co-author Dr Nicholas Dunning, a professor at the University of Cincinnati.
cinnabar/wikipedia
As mercury is rare in the limestone that underlies much of the Maya region, they speculate that elemental mercury and cinnabar found at Maya sites could have been originally mined from known deposits on the northern and southern confines of the ancient Maya world, and imported to the cities by traders.
Health hazards and the ‘Mayacene’
All this mercury would have posed a health hazard for the ancient Maya: for example, the effects of chronic mercury poisoning include damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver, and cause tremors, impaired vision and hearing, paralysis, and mental health problems. It’s perhaps significant that one of the last Maya rulers of Tikal, Dark Sun, who ruled around 810 CE, is depicted in frescoes as pathologically obese. Obesity is a known effect of metabolic syndrome, which can be caused by chronic mercury poisoning.
More research is needed to determine whether mercury exposure played a role in larger sociocultural change and trends in the Maya world, such as those towards the end of the Classic Period.
Co-author Dr Tim Beach, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said: “We conclude that even the ancient Maya, who barely used metals, caused mercury concentrations to be greatly elevated in their environment. This result is yet more evidence that just like we live today in the ‘Anthropocene’, there also was a ‘Maya anthropocene’ or ‘Mayacene’. Metal contamination seems to have been effect of human activity through history.”
Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the first National Conference on Sustainable Coastal Management in India in Bhubaneswar today.
This conference is being organized by the Green Climate Fund supported project – Enhancing Climate Resilience of India’s Coastal Communities.
The objective of the conference is to bring officials from all 13 coastal states of India under one roof to focus on the three interrelated themes :
Coastal and marine biodiversity,
Climate mitigation and adaptation and
Coastal pollution.
This endeavour is aimed at creating a vibrant network of stakeholders who will continue to engage with each other on the topics but also on cross-cutting themes such as coastal governance, technologies and innovation as well as domestic and international finance.
“The Indian coastline is of immense strategic, economic and social importance to the country.
Indian coastline spans 7,500 kilometres, seventh longest in the world,
home to 20 percent of the country’s population,
Three of our four metropolitan cities lie on the coast,
supports more than 17,000 species of plants and animals.
There is a great diversity of ecosystems within our coastal regions that support more than 17,000 species of plants and animals. With the changing climate, we need to build the resilience of communities living in coastal areas.” said Shri Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Sustainable Coastal Management in India
“This conference comes at an important time as India has submitted its revised NDCs and seeks to create multi-sectoral partnerships to meet these targets” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, said: “Such conferences are important to bring the conversations of resilience and sustainability to our country’s coastal areas. This was also envisioned in the Honourable Prime Minister’s LiFE movement.”
Sustainable Coastal Management in India
Sustainable coastal management is recognised as need of the hour. Data-driven policies and management frameworks, participatory conservation models, and convergence between stakeholders are the key pillars for effective coastal management.
A programme on Enhancing Climate Resilience of Coastal Communities is being implemented in partnership with UNDP in the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the initiative is integrating ecosystem and community-based approaches to adaptation into coastal management and planning.
The impact of breathing diesel exhaust fumes may be more severe for females than males, according to new research that will be presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona, Spain [1].
Researchers looked for changes in people’s blood brought about by exposure to diesel exhaust. In both females and males, they found changes in components of the blood related to inflammation, infection and cardiovascular disease, but they found more changes in females than males.
The research was presented by Dr Hemshekhar Mahadevappa, from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada and was a collaboration between two research groups led by Professor Neeloffer Mookherjee at the University of Manitoba and Professor Chris Carlsten at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Dr Mahadevappa told the Congress: “We already know that there are sex differences in lung diseases such as asthma and respiratory infections.
Air pollution/Photo:en.wikipedia.org
Research showed that breathing diesel exhaust creates inflammation in the lungs and has an impact on how the body deals with respiratory infections. In this study, we wanted to look for any effects in the blood and how these differ in females and males.”
The study involved ten volunteers, five female and five male, who were all healthy non-smokers. Each volunteer spent four hours breathing filtered air and four hours breathing air containing diesel exhaust fumes at three different concentrations – 20, 50 and 150 micrograms of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) per cubic metre – with a four-week break in between each exposure.
Volunteers donated blood samples 24 hours after each exposure and the researchers made detailed examinations of the volunteers’ blood plasma. Plasma is the liquid component of the blood that carries blood cells as well as hundreds of proteins and other molecules around the body. Using a well-established analysis technology called liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, the researchers looked for changes in the levels of different proteins following exposure to diesel exhaust and compared the changes in females and males.
Airpollution/Photo:en.wikipedia.org
Comparing the plasma samples, the researchers found levels of 90 proteins that were distinctly different between female and male volunteers following exposure to diesel exhaust. Among the proteins that differed between females and males, were some that are known to play a role in inflammation, damage repair, blood clotting, cardiovascular disease and the immune system. Some of these differences became clearer when volunteers were exposed to the higher levels of diesel exhaust.
Professor Mookherjee explained: “These are preliminary findings, however they show that exposure to diesel exhaust has different effects in female bodies compared to male and that could indicate that air pollution is more dangerous for females than males.
“This is important as respiratory diseases such as asthma are known to effect females and males differently, with females more likely to suffer severe asthma that does not respond to treatments. Therefore, we need to know a lot more about how females and males respond to air pollution and what this means for preventing, diagnosing and treating their respiratory disease.”
Air pollution/photo:en.wikipedia.org
Professor Zorana Andersen from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, is Chair of the European Respiratory Society Environment and Health Committee and was not involved in the research. She said: “We know that exposure to air pollution, especially diesel exhaust, is a major risk factor in diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There is very little we can do as individuals to avoid beathing polluted air, so we need governments to set and enforce limits on air pollutants.
People who regularly exercise are at a lower risk of high blood pressure, even if they live in highly polluted areas, found a new research, since the risk-benefit relationship between air pollution and physical activity is a major concern as more than 91% of people worldwide live in areas where air quality fails to meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
The paper published in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation, is based on a study of more than 140,000 adults without high blood pressure in Taiwan, who are followed for five years. Researchers classified the weekly physical activity levels of each adult as inactive, moderately active or highly active.
Researchers also classified level of exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as low, moderate and high. PM2.5 is the most commonly used indicator of air pollution. High blood pressure was defined as 140/90 mm Hg, though the American Heart Association 2017 Guideline defines high blood pressure as 130/80 mm Hg.
Exercise helps despite high pollution
Study author Xiang Qian Lao, an associate professor at the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shatin, said: “While we found that high physical activity combined with lower air pollution exposure was linked to lower risk of high blood pressure, physical activity continued to have a protective effect even when people were exposed to high pollution levels. The message is that physical activity, even in polluted air, is an important high blood pressure prevention strategy.”
Highlights of the study show that people who are highly active and exposed to low levels of pollution had a lower risk of developing high blood pressure, whereas those who were inactive and exposed to highly polluted air had a higher high blood pressure risk.
High risk levels
Each increase in PM2.5 level was associated with a 38% increase in risk of incident hypertension, whereas each increase in physical activity level lead to a 6% lower risk of hypertension, suggesting that reducing air pollution is more effective in preventing high BP.
Regardless of pollution level, people who exercised moderately had a 4% lower risk of high blood pressure than those who didn’t exercise. People who exercised at a high level had a 13% lower risk of high blood pressure than those who don’t.
The findings of this study are limited to air pollution because it only included people living in Taiwan, where ambient air was moderately polluted (the annual PM2.5 concentration was 2.6 times of the limit recommended by the World Health Organization).
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in its order dated 19th October, 2016 in OA No.200 of 2014 in the matter of M.C. Mehta vs Union of India had directed a joint inspection team to visit the area falling in Segment ‘B’ of Phase-I (Haridwar to Kanpur) and identify the number of drains joining river Ganga or its tributaries and make observations in relation to quantum and quality of effluent that is going to river Ganga or its main tributaries through drains.
The joint inspection team submitted its report to the Hon’ble NGT. 86 major drains have been identified which are directly discharging into River Ganga (30 drains) and its major tributaries namely Ramganga (25 drains), Kali-East (26 drains) and Pandu river (5 drains). Of the 86 drains, 52 drains were found to be carrying domestic sewage, 2 were found to be carrying industrial effluent whereas remaining 32 were found to be carrying mixed effluent.
Namami Gange Programme has been launched as a holistic approach to clean Ganga through various activities such as treatment of municipal sewage, treatment of industrial affluents, river surface cleaning, rural sanitation, afforestation and biodiversity etc. For checking entry of sewage affluents into river Ganga, sewage infrastructure projects are being sanctioned in towns along the main stem of river Ganga, which includes creation of Sewage Treatment Plants, sewage network projects and interception & diversion network to divert the flow of polluting drain towards treatment plants. To check industrial pollution, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has inventorised 1109 Gross Polluting Industries (GPIs). These GPIs are being inspected and monitored regularly and closure directions are being issued to non-compliant industries.
This information was given by Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
