According the United Nations (UN) body, the World Health Organization (WHO) the air we breath should now be classified as carcinogenic and dangerous to human life.

It is now ranked in Group 1 of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the WHO organization that tracks cancer rates around the world. Particulate matter, the dark or white dust you wipe off your window sill, is a particular concern for lung cancer. Air pollution, indoor and out, now joins the bad list of cancerous materials like asbestos (for mesothelioma), plutonium, silica dust, tobacco smoke and UV radiation.

Related: Cairo’s Black Smog Season

Air pollution is caused from a variety of sources in cities. Car and bus fumes, and particulate matter are especially toxic, as are fumes and emissions from power plants, cooking fuel, and any industry nearby that may be releasing emissions. I’ve been choked up in Bangkok but some of the worst air pollution I’ve felt in the Middle East region is in Amman, Jordan – also most recently voted as one of the ugliest cities in the world. While I’ve never been to Tehran, I am not sure I would like to: some 27 people a day die in the Iranian city from choking fumes.

The dangers vary from one region to the next but the WHO says all regions of the world are affected by poor air quality at some level.

How can we stop emissions? Riding bikes, electric buses, walking. As well as greener sources of cooking fuel and residential heating.

The post Polluted Air Cancerous and Deadly, Like Asbestos says UN appeared first on Green Prophet.

To date, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has affected at least 94 people, 46 of whom died, but researchers have yet to pinpoint the source of this deadly virus.

New research published in the journal Lancet Infections Diseases suggests that dromedary camels may be responsible.

In order to investigate how people are picking up the coronavirus, which is not yet considered a global threat, researchers tested animals in several countries to determine if they had ever been infected with the disease.

Professor Marion Koopmans, from the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment and Erasmus University in The Netherlands, told the BBC:

“We did find antibodies that we think are specific for the Mers coronavirus or a virus that looks very similar to the Mers coronavirus in dromedary camels.”

Animals that test positive for these antibodies have been exposed to the disease at one time or another, Prof Koopmans adds.

It turns out that in the Canary Islands, 15 out of 105 dromedary camels tested positive for the antibodies, while all 50 of the camels in Oman have also been exposed to the disease at one time during their lifespan. But neither of the two countries have reported any cases of humans contracting the disease.

Prof Koopmans said: “It is a smoking gun, but it is not definitive proof.”

Professor Paul Kellam from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge and University College London told the paper that there is only one way to know for certain that the camels are spreading the disease to humans.

“The definitive proof would be to isolate the virus from an infected animal or to be able to sequence and characterise the genome from an infected animal,” he told BBC. The next step is to take samples from camels in Saudi Arabia, where the first man contracted the disease and died.

Although BBC News reports that there is no concern for alarm, last year Margaret Chan, WHO secretary-general, said otherwise.

Chan announced that Mers is a “threat to the entire world.”

“We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat,” said Chan.

“Any new disease that is emerging faster than our understanding is never under control. These are alarm bells and we must respond. The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single country can manage by itself.”

:: BBC News

Image of dromedary camels in Egypt, Trip Advisor

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These statistics were published by WHO on June 14. On June 15th, three new cases and another death were advised, rendering daily WHO updates instantly out of date. By the time this story is published, numbers will rise.

By June 17, Saudi Arabia has confirmed four more deaths.

The bug is a variant of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a virus that emerged in Asia over a decade ago.  That disease spread rapidly, infecting over 8,000 people and killing nearly 800 before mysteriously disappearing.

Last year, the first case of this new virus was recorded when a Saudi man developed the infection and died. It was several months before a second man was stricken. Concerns arose that transmission would exponentially increase during the 2012 Hajj, when millions of Muslims made pilgrimage to the Saudi holy city of Mecca, but no outbreak occurred and alarm over the unnamed virus (simply called “SARS-like”) quieted.

But it’s back in the news with two known cases of Mecca pilgrims falling fatally ill this year. In February, a British pilgrim died after infecting two family members.  In late May, a 66-year-old Tunisian man died after returning from a pilgrimage, and two of his children tested positive for the virus.

Last month two new cases were reported in France. Patient #1 had traveled to Dubai, became ill and was hospitalized in France, where his hospital roommate picked up the bug. Cases have since been reported in Tunisia, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Germany, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Tough talk and decisive action can be effective tools when dealing with public health.  So Margaret Chan, WHO secretary-general, grabbed a microphone and boldly announced that the coronavirus circulating mostly in the Middle East posed a “threat to the entire world.”

And the news media took the bait.  Is she overstating the threat?

Chan from WHO was directly involved with the Asian SARS outbreak. She’s experienced in corralling world attention to scary epidemics. A case of “the girl who cried wolf”? Or a prudent early warning system to incite sober attention to an unpredictable new virus with far-reaching influence?

She said, “We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat. Any new disease that is emerging faster than our understanding is never under control. These are alarm bells and we must respond. The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single country can manage by itself.”

The virus continues to spread into new countries, raising concern ahead of the Islamic pilgrimage periods which will occur this summer and autumn.

Most of the victims suffered from underlying medical conditions. The WHO says the virus spreads by means including interpersonal contact, and possibly via airborne transmission between people in closed quarters.  It doesn’t appear to spread easily in communities at large, but what about transmission between travelers in airports and planes?

Authorities believe initial transmission of the virus was from animal to human, but the animal source remains unidentified.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control noted the many unanswered questions about the Middle East-based virus, issuing a statement saying, “It is unusual to have such a degree of uncertainty at this stage in an outbreak.”

Image of man in oxygen mask from Shutterstock

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A SARS-like respiratory illness has claimed the life of a second person from Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced. The coronavirus sparked worldwide attention in September when an initial alert was sounded, but now a total of six cases have been reported, two of which have been fatal.

Saudi Arabia has stepped up surveillance of acute respiratory illnesses  after a 49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to the kingdom, where another infected man had died, fell ill with the same disease.

The WHO is working with representatives from Saudi Arabia and Qatar in order to learn more about the coronavirus that is similar to the SARS respiratory disease that killed 800 people in 2002.

“Further epidemiological and scientific studies are needed to better understand the virus,” WHO said in a press release, Arabian Business reports.

A relative of the Saudi national who died recently recovered from the disease, but this is the only case so far where people who have been infected are linked.

Although the WHO says that it is very unlikely that the illness is passed between humans, not enough is known about the disease and the organization urges caution.

“Until more information is available, it is prudent to consider that the virus is likely more widely distributed than just the two countries which have identified cases,” WHO said.

:: Arabian Business

Image of an Arab boy wearing a white mask, Shutterstock

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The Israeli Health Ministry stated that 1 in every 8 Israeli women is at risk of breast cancer. The disease is on the rise in Jewish Israeli women, but mortality rates are dropping, according to the Israel Health Ministry. The contradiction is resolved when it’s understood that early detection and greater numbers of women being screened reveal new cases earlier than in previous years, which in turn allows prompt treatment and better chances of recovery. And if natural cancer prevention with herbs sounds unlikely, read our post about turmeric’s amazing anti-cancer properties and another about a folkloric Pakistani herbal tea that’s come under scientific scrutiny.

According to the Israel Cancer Association, about 90 percent of patients can be cured if the disease is detected at an early stage. Breast cancer age-standardized mortality rates dropped from 22.6% in 1998 to 17.4% in 2009- an impressive 30% decrease.

Mammography is the recommended method for early detection in Israel, and is paid for by the state health services. Women between 50 and 74 are urged to have a mammogram every two years, while those over 40 with breast cancer in the family  history may have one yearly. Women who have the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutation, usually found in Jewish Ashkenazic women, are given MRI tests.

Current statistics (2008-2009) show that Israeli Arab women’s risk has dropped to one in 14, an improvement over the previous study covering 2007-2008, where the risk was one in 13. The mortality figures among Arab women also fell for the first time in 2009. Rennert explains:

“We are investing great efforts in encouraging Arab women’s to come for examinations. For example, we organized transportation from villages to a clinic, for mammograms . We also employ a mobile mammography unit in Arab communities.”

According to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, breast cancer rates in Israel are the fifth highest in the Western world.

WHO figures on international breast cancer rates per 1000 women in populations:

Belgium: 109.2

Denmark: 101.1

France: 99.7

Holland: 98.5

Israel: 97.8

Germany: 81.6

Sweden 79.4

USA: 76

Israel has one of the highest rates in the world for hormonal fertility treatments, which raise the risk factor. Other factors include hormone-replacement treatments for menopausal women. Dr. Gad Rennert, director of the national breast cancer screening program, remarks:

“Breast cancer is a disease of the Western world and the increase is a sign of westernization – in other words, lower birth rates and postponing the age of pregnancy.”

Senior La Leche League lactation counselor and former writer for Green Prophet Hannah Katsman adds,

“Studies show that breastfeeding lowers breast cancer risk.”

Quoting from “Breast Feeding and Human Lactation” (Jan Riordan and Karen Wambach), Katsman told us that “Breastfeeding is one of the few modifiable factors that helps to prevent breast cancer. According to Riordan and Wambach, if women in developed countries that have 2.5 children average breastfed them 6 months longer than the current norm, 5% of breast cancer could be prevented.”

Something for new mothers to consider when choosing between bottle and breast.

Maintaining normal weight, regular exercise, and eating lots of anti-oxidant vegetables every day are standard recommendations for cancer prevention. But don’t ignore them just because you’ve read it all before. And if you’re a woman over 40, find time in your calendar for your next checkup and mammogram.

Environmental factors that increase risk of cancer:

• A Plastic Pollution Cocktail
• Asbestos Exposure Raises Cancer Rates in Lebanon
• Fast Food Increases Colon Cancer in Cairo

Image of breast cancer patient from Shutterstock

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