Health & Wellbeing

Industrialization and advancing technology are producing more food, energy and consumer goods than ever before. The gains are immense: rising living standards and millions lifted out of extreme poverty. But there’s a price to pay, as economic growth fuels over-consumption, waste and pollution. The environment suffers – and so do human health and wellbeing. One death in every eight is caused by air pollution.

The challenge is to reap the benefits of growth sustainably: improving living standards without impairing quality of life, and making the most of our planet without damaging land, seas or the air we breathe.

Air pollution is linked to 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK and one in nine deaths globally . It also contributes significantly to climate change.

http://breathelife2030.org

Untitled by Akos Hegedus

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Girls in the Beijing underground 2016 Submitted in the Professional Commission

Beijing, China
Untitled by Ian McNaught Davis

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Men dig the soil near Zomba in Malawi as part of the planting process for tobacco. Growing tobacco is a thirsty business – each plant requires 20 litres of water just to secure it in the dry soil as it is planted. 2015 Submitted in the Professional Commission

Zomba, Malawi
Untitled by Ian McNaught Davis

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A young man takes a selfie at the Raskazone Swimming Club in Tanga, Tanzania. The water in the nearby Zigi River is at risk of contamination from toxic mercury used in illegal gold mining activities near the river source, 2015 Submitted in the Professional Commission

Tanga, Tanzania
Living together by Rahendra Mohan Pandey

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The people who live alongside the river depend heavily on it for their daily needs but also contribute to keeping the river and the surrounding areas as clean as possible. 2016 Submitted in the Open Competition

Calcutta, India
Life and lines by Probal Rashid

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Electricians are working on a wire above the ground without any safety equipment. According to the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), 7,199 workers were killed and 17,138 were injured in workplace accidents in the last 10 years. Between January and December 2013, at least 1,912 workers were killed and 5,738 were injured. 2014 Submitted in the Open Competition

Dhaka, Bangladesh
Stone diggers by David Verbreckt

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Subject of a frantic construction boom, Bangladesh is in acute shortage of sand and gravel for building purposes. The Himalayan Rivers in the north of the country are being dug up during the dry season for their quality stones that will be crushed into gravel for the construction sector. Thousands of migrant workers converge to Tamabil and Bholaganj with their entire families to extract and carry stones by hand. 2015 Submitted in the Open Competition

Jaflong, Bangladesh