{"id":4419,"date":"2018-11-01T13:54:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T13:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=4419"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:22:18","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:22:18","slug":"no2coal-5-scary-facts-about-air-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/blogs\/4419\/no2coal-5-scary-facts-about-air-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"#NO2Coal: 5 Scary Facts About Air Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Action

Activists from Greenpeace Africa drive three dumper trucks filled with coal to the front of the Eskom Megawatt Park to unload five tonnes of the rock outside their offices. Effectively blocking one of the entrances to the building with the coal. The activists also hold banners calling on Eskom to ‘clean up it’s act’, to “Stop Coal”, to end their usage of the outdated fossil fuel; to publicly demand that Eskom stops the construction of the Kusile coal-fired power station and shift investments to large-scale renewable energy projects.<\/p><\/div>\n

While fictitious ghosts and ghouls capture the world’s imagination over Halloween, a real invisible killer claims thousands South Africans\u2019 lives each year.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Mpumalanga province has been identified as the world\u2019s number one NO2\u00a0hotspot. But what is NO2\u00a0and why should we be concerned? NO2\u00a0is a dangerous pollutant that\u2019s released into the air when coal is burnt. It damages our lungs, and causes asthma and lung cancer.<\/p>\n

The frightening reality is that air pollution from coal-fired power stations in Mpumalanga isn\u2019t confined to this province. It blows over to Pretoria and Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

Here are five killer facts that you should know about air pollution and NO2\u00a0and how they can affect your health.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    The World Health Organization who have called air pollution \u201ca leading environmental cause of cancer deaths\u201d. Around\u00a020,000 South Africans die from air pollution every year.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n

      NO2\u00a0decreases your body\u2019s ability to fight off lung infections. Short-term exposure to NO2\u00a0causes wheezing, flu and bronchitis and long-term exposure causes increased rates of heart disease.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n

        95% of the people in the world breathes unsafe air – in fact,\u00a0only one in every 20 people in the world breathes air that is considered safe.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \"\"<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. \n

          During pregnancy, air pollution increases the risk of a low birth weight, which could lead to serious health problems for newborns.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \"\"<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. \n

            Living in highly polluted cities can double your risk of stroke\u00a0by damaging the inner lining of your veins and arteries.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            \"\"<\/p>\n

            SIGN UP<\/a>\u00a0for more information on air pollution.<\/p>\n

            Click here to view the interactive pollution map<\/a><\/p>\n

            SA Briefing_Global<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            While fictitious ghosts and ghouls capture the world’s imagination over Halloween, a real invisible killer claims thousands South Africans\u2019 lives each year. South Africa\u2019s Mpumalanga province has been identified as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":4422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7,26,65],"p4-page-type":[48],"class_list":["post-4419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-changemycommunity","tag-coal","tag-energy","tag-southafrica","p4-page-type-blogs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4419"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5995,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419\/revisions\/5995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4419"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=4419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}