Environmental factors are responsible for global burden of disease: President

President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that environmental factors are responsible for global burden of disease in terms of healthy life years lost and 23 percent of all deaths.

"Recent studies and systematic reviews indicate that environmental factors are responsible for an estimated 24 percent of the global burden of disease in terms of healthy life years lost and 23 percent of all deaths," President Mukherjee said while addressing the 'World Conference on Environment'.

He asserted that children are the worst sufferers of adverse impact of environmental diseases.

"Twenty-four percent of all deaths under the age of fifteen are due to diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory diseases, all of which are environment related. Nineteen percent of the deaths caused by Cancer worldwide are attributed to carcinogens that unmindful industrialization produces," he added.

President Mukherjee further said that global warming and rising sea levels are no more in the realm of the future, adding that environmental degradation and its impact on health, as also climatic changes are no more theoretical premises.

The President expressed happiness that over the past decade, consciousness about environmental concerns has grown and also resulted in action on part of governments throughout the world.

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