Time to close the air pollution gender gap

Sara Alsén. - Supplied photo

Air pollution is widening the gender gap. Women keep fighting for pay equity and against sexual harassment and abuse. But what women should also be fighting for is clean air. Women are 25 per cent more likely to die from exposure to air pollution than men.
Reducing air pollution can help improve women's health and save lives. By 2030, the United Nations aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls through actions outlined in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5). But it is equally important to look at SDG5 through the filter of U.N. SDG3, which seeks to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. To achieve health equity, we need to identify the disparities that impact women's health. We also need to take concrete action that can improve women's health around the world.
Why clean air is a women's issue
Polluted air is the single biggest environmental health risk of our time. But what many don't realize is that women are most at risk. A recent Harvard report found that women are 25% more likely to die from exposure to air pollution than men. No matter where they live, what their age, whether rich or poor, women are more vulnerable than men to a slew of air pollution-related diseases.
This does not bode well for women. Studies link air pollution to irregular menstruation, infertility, gestational diabetes, metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome - not to mention putting the unborn at risk for autism and other diseases. Women are at higher risk for diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis as well as cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and stroke.
It is a sobering reality that raises critical questions. Why are women at higher risk than men? The answers are unclear. One theory is that women generally have lower body weights and higher proportions of body fat than men, which translates into a higher uptake of toxins into women's bodies. Another is that women's airways may be more sensitive and therefore more susceptible than those of men to pollution's adverse health effects. Whatever the reasons, it is clear that more needs to be done to reduce women's health risks due to air pollution.
Better air quality can propel gender equality forward
Enabling women and girls represents the single biggest opportunity for human development and economic growth, says the World Economic Forum (WEF). Yet despite the rallying cries for gender equality and the efforts of many organisations around the globe, progress towards parity has done an about-face. The latest WEF Global Gender Gap Report states that gender equality is 217 years away and that women's health is one of its key and most challenging areas to address. In 2016, the WEF projected that gender equality was 170 years away. In the space of a year, the timeframe has turned back 47 years. And it's clear that 2030 is far too soon for a gender-equal world envisaged by the U.N.
Women need to breathe air free from pollutants
Air pollution is everywhere. It's outdoors. It's indoors. It's affecting us all - right now as we breathe. Breathing any levels of ambient air pollution puts women disproportionately at higher risk.
An increase in ambient particulate air pollution (PM2.5) of just one microgram per cubic meter raises women's risk of cardiovascular events by 24% and women's mortality risks associated with heart attacks or strokes by 76% (Source: Study published in the NEJM). You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that those statistics are not good. One microgram per cubic meter is a seemingly miniscule amount but it can make a difference between life and death.
Here's another alarming fact. As the levels of air pollution increase, so too does the rate of mortality according to the Harvard report even at levels lower than those deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And if U.S. air quality standards are not safe for Americans, the World Health Organisation and all other national air quality standards now require re-evaluation. Francesca Dominici, senior author of the report, summed the issue this way: "Any level of air pollution, no matter how low, is harmful to human health."
Indoor air pollution is pervasive in homes worldwide, in some more pervasive than in others. Household air pollution also puts women at higher risk for pollution-related diseases than men. In developed countries, women are generally exposed to more airborne contaminants in their homes. Women still shoulder most of the responsibilities in the home than men. They do the lion's share of childcare and do more laundry, more cleaning and more cooking, too. In the process, women are exposed to cleaning agents, detergents, perfumes, cooking fumes and other household items - all of which emit harmful volatile organic compounds into the air.
Breathing polluted air indoors also takes its toll on women in developing countries. Women spend more time than men, several hours a day, collecting solid fuel - wood, dung, crop wastes or charcoal - for cooking and heating. They cook family meals indoors on open fires or primitive cook stoves, which release soot and contaminants into the air. While gathered around the hearth with their children, women breathe air that contain pollutant levels often more than 100 times higher than the levels recommended by the WHO.
Of the 4.3 million people who die from the health risks related to the use of solid fuels for cooking and heating in their homes, more than 60% of them are women and children (2012). The solution seems simple: Provide better stoves and cleaner fuels. But the challenge then becomes the ambient air quality, which seeps easily into most homes in these low- to middle-income houses. Then what?
Reducing air pollution benefits us all
The scope and scale of the air pollution gender gap is enormous. To minimise the health risks posed by air pollution exposure, it is important it is to recognize how gender increases the health risks. The stakes are especially high for women.
To close the air pollution gender gap, there's much work to be done. We need to put clean air at the top of the global agenda. We need to reduce air pollution, reduce women's exposure to air pollution, improve women's overall health, and educate women about their vulnerabilities to pollution-related diseases and provide them with tools to effect change.
Reducing health inequities helps even out the playing field. It helps keep women healthier. Those who are healthier are able to contribute to their families' welfare and livelihoods, which empowers them as equal members of society.
Better air quality can save lives. Improving the air quality can save the lives of women, who once empowered, have great potential to lift the global economy and make the world a better place. There is no more appropriate time to start closing the air pollution gender gap than on International Women's Day. Let's get to work.
The writer is Chief Purpose Officer, Blueair. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.