The Importance Of Air Quality In Toronto

In 2013, air pollution has been characterized by the WHO as the “most widespread environmental carcinogen” (IARC, 2013). For Torontonians, the problem regarding air quality is also a big challenge upfront. Although the overall air quality has been improved for recent years, Toronto still sees over a thousand premature deaths and over three thousand hospitalization due to respiratory diseases every year. (Toronto 's Vital Signs, 2015) Moreover, Dr. David McKeown (2007), Toronto medical officer of health, believes that the air pollution will be exaggerated by the effect of climate change and will further exacerbate the related burden of illness. Thus, as we have seen the 2013 horrible effect of climate change in Toronto, it is no doubt that there is still a lot to be concerned about. Specifically, from several studies, it shows that urban structure, increase in urban population, highways and heavy-duty vehicles are all key variables that could pose the negative impact on our urban air quality and our health. However, we can mitigate these problems by changes of urban development structure, regulations about population growth, restrictions of new constructions near highways, and regulations of heavy-duty vehicles in the city.

To some extent, …show more content…
Based on 1 finding of Toronto Public Health (TPH), it shows that there is a 41% decline in hospitalizations and 23% in premature deaths when comparing with 2004 data. (Toronto 's Vital Signs, 2015) On the contrary, the number of citizens who have the symptoms of asthma rose again in 2014 to 6.8% after a consecutive decrease to 5.3% in 2013 from 2010 level of 6.9%. (Toronto 's Vital Signs, 2015) Also, ground-level ozone concentration still keeps high exceeding the Canada-wide standard. (Toronto 's Vital Signs, 2015) Therefore, the prospect of Toronto air quality is still not optimistic and it is potential harm on public