It’s also known that Oxygen is the most abundant chemical element by mass in the earth's biosphere, air, water, and rocks. It is also the third most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen and helium27 and represents about 0.9% of the mass of the Sun. It constitutes 49.2% of the mass of the earth's crust and is the main constituent of our oceans, 88.8% of their mass. All these scientific data just support the sentence that everyone knows, literate or not, scientific or not that "oxygen is essential to life". The covid 19 pandemic has demonstrated this very important aspect of the mass effect and the impact that the scale of systemic pollution can cause.

Air pollution is therefore easily understood as the modification of the composition and natural characteristics of the atmosphere by chemical, physical or biological factors.

These chemical, physical or biological factors that can be the causes of air pollution come from uses and different products dating from the era closest to our present, the era of the industrial revolution. Let’s consider the following examples: oil engines, industrial installations, and more generally domestic use materials rejecting toxic particles. Also rarely, let’s point natural causes of air pollution such as the problem of household waste management, forest fires (these fires themselves caused by other factors), etc.

As a result, pollutants are a public health concern. Outdoor and indoor air pollution causes respiratory and other diseases and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. According to the WHO, almost all of the world's population (99%) breathes air whose values ​​exceed the recommended limits and which contain high levels of pollutants. Exposure is highest in low- and middle-income countries.

In short, as we established at the start of our introduction, air quality is closely linked to climate and ecosystems. Many of the air pollution factors are known and greenhouse gas emissions are one of them. And logically, it is clear that policies aimed at reducing air pollution will therefore have a double advantage: for the climate and for health.

Here in Togo in my country, in terms of what is done, we have the National Agency for Sanitation and Public Safety (ANASAP) created by Decree No. 2013-082/PR on December 3, 2013 and subsequently became a body attached at the Ministry of Urban Planning. Also, frequently, public safety campaigns have been carried out by youth associations and Non-Governmental Organizations which take to the streets, markets, sidewalks and other public places. And much more can be done in terms of politics and of civic engagement as such as the use of electric motorcycles by citizens thanks to local transport companies such as M AUTO, PIKI PIKI etc.

Written by Richard Adayi.

Resources

WHO global air quality guidelines, ISBN: 9789240034228.

NASA/ADS, Publication APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Meeting Abstracts, Pub Date: 2020 Bibcode: 2020APS..DFDK07003W.