http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Canadian+quality+among+best+world/5462860/story.html
Yet it will still affect health of thousands
BY CARMEN CHAI, POSTMEDIA NEWSSEPTEMBER 27, 2011
If you thought it was a pain to drive in Montreal or Toronto, think again. According to results of a survey, it’s not nearly as frustrating as driving in Mexico City or Beijing. In its fourth annual study, IBM selected those Canadian cities among the world’s top 65 cities. Montreal was ranked as the least-painful city in which to drive, while Toronto was ranked the fifth-least painful. Mexico City, Shenzhen and Beijing were ranked the three worst cities in which to be behind the wheel.
Photograph by: Peter J. Thompson, Postmedia News, Postmedia News
A new World Health Organization database on air quality places Canada as one of the world’s top nations when it comes to clean air, but an expert says despite this country’s high scores, the air Canadians breathe will still cause health issues for thousands.
The international public health authority on Monday launched its first Air Quality database, which covers almost 1,100 cities in 91 countries, revealing the world’s hot spots for air pollution as well as regions with the highest health burden due to poor air quality. Data on particulate matter, a kind of air pollution that results in particles floating in the air, were compiled from national records, websites and scientific articles to create the database.
Compared with 90 other countries, Canada tied for third with Australia following Estonia and Mauritius in a ranking that looked at how many air pollutant particles were recorded in a cubic metre of air in each country.
“Canada did indeed score very well, which shows Canada has been taking good action over the years,” said Annette Pruss-Ustun, a scientist in the WHO’s public health and environment department.
However, Pruss-Ustun said even the smallest amounts of particulate matter in the air can affect someone’s health.
The WHO estimates that 1.3 million people – with more than half of them in developing countries – die every year from outdoor air pollution. About 2,400 people die every year in Canada as a result of air pollution.
The database looked at two sizes of particles – those that had a diameter of less than 2.5 microns (or PM2.5) and their bigger, less hazardous counterparts, which were at least 10 micrometres large (PM10). The individual particles aren’t visible – a 10-micrometre-wide particle is easily 50 to 100 times thinner than a strand of human hair.
In Canada, there was an annual average of 13 micrograms of PM10 particles per cubic metre of air while Estonia had 11 and the country with the most air pollution – Mongolia – had 279 large-sized particulates in a single cubic metre of air.
Sarnia, Ont., surrounded by oil refineries in a region that also shares a border with Michigan, topped the Canadian list. It documented 12.7 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic metre of air, which was on par with population-dense New York and was just 0.4 fewer than Madrid and foggy London.
Montreal, with 11.2 PM2.5 and Windsor, Ont., at 10.1, trailed Sarnia while Toronto, recorded 7.9 PM2.5, almost twice as much as Metro Vancouver.
TOP 10 COUNTRIES FOR AIR QUALITY
Includes the year of the last sample, followed by the number of micrograms of particulate matter at least 10 micrometres in size, per cubic metre of air.
Estonia 2008 11
Mauritius 2009 12
Canada 2008 13
Australia 2009 13
Ireland 2008 15
Bhutan 2006 18
Luxembourg 2008 18
Monaco 2008 18
United States 2008 18
Finland 2008 19
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
If you thought it was a pain to drive in Montreal or Toronto, think again. According to results of a survey, it’s not nearly as frustrating as driving in Mexico City or Beijing. In its fourth annual study, IBM selected those Canadian cities among the world’s top 65 cities. Montreal was ranked as the least-painful city in which to drive, while Toronto was ranked the fifth-least painful. Mexico City, Shenzhen and Beijing were ranked the three worst cities in which to be behind the wheel.
Photograph by: Peter J. Thompson, Postmedia News, Postmedia News