Vital GEO Graphics

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Mobile phones, per 1 000 people, by region

600 Number of subscribers

Africa Asia and the Pacific Europe Latin America and the Caribbean North America West Asia

500

400

300

200

100

0

Source: GEO Data Portal, compiled from ITU 2005

1998

2000

1992

2002

1994

1996

2003

1999

2001

1990

1991

1995

1993

1997

Contaminants affect people in even the remotest regions. For example, contaminants reach the Arctic from all over the world through wind, air and water currents, entering the food chain. Inuit populations in the eastern Canadian Arctic and Greenland have among the highest exposures to POPs and mercury from a traditional diet of populations anywhere.

The production and use of chemicals has not always been accompanied by adequate safety measures. Releases, by-products and degradation of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other commodities contaminate the environment and there is growing evidence of their persistence and their detrimental effects on eco- systems, human and animal health. Many industrial chemicals persist in the environment, circulating between air, water, sediments, soil and biota. Some pollutants travel long distances to sup- posedly pristine areas. Chemical emissions to the at- mosphere often become fallout on land or water, for example polychlorodibenzodioxins (PCDD) in Europe.

D ownload G raphic 2

PCDD (dioxin) in the atmosphere and deposition, 2003

PCDD deposition

Atmospheric PCDD

ng TEQ/m 2 /y

fg TEQ/m 3

< 0.1 0.1–0.5 0.5–1

< 0.1 0.1–0.2 0.2–0.3 0.3–0.5 0.5–1 1–3 > 3

1–3 3–5 5–10 > 10

Notes: TEQ = toxic equivalents; fg = femto gram = 10 –15 ; ng = nano gram = 10 –9 .

Source: MSC-E 2005

52 V I TAL GEO GRAPH I CS