The Cost of Environmental Devastation Will Be Severe in the Years Ahead

TÜSAD provided important information and recommendations on environmental damage, which has become a topic of discussion with reference to areas such as Kazdağları and Salda Lake. TÜSAD President Prof. Dr. Arzu Mirici, emphasizing that compensation for damages to the environment and human health is not possible, said "Environmental destruction becomes very costly for everyone over the years." As Turkey's first scientific association in the field of respiratory health, the Turkish Respiratory Research Society (TÜSAD), with more than 4,000 members, works on lung health and has added a new warning on environmental issues. TÜSAD emphasized the importance that environmental destruction, which has recently become a topic of discussion with reference to values such as Kazdağları and Salda Lake, carries in terms of environment and human health. Noting that damages in environmental destruction are overlooked because they emerge gradually over the years, TÜSAD pointed out that the real cost is much higher than the gains. In a statement on the matter, TÜSAD President Prof. Dr. Arzu Mirici stated that environmental problems concentrated in recent days around Kazdağları and Salda Lake are not only a regional issue but a global problem affecting our entire country and the entire world. Saying that "environmental health is a whole," Mirici pointed out that air, water and soil pollution will interact with each other over time. Mirici, expressing that the damages that activities causing deforestation, and consequently water source pollution and air quality deterioration, will cause to the environment and human health cannot be corrected over the years, said: "When similar operations and processes are examined around the world, it is seen that the impact on human health, particularly chronic diseases and cancer, the loss of healthy drinking water sources and agricultural areas are the most fundamental problems. The fact that these damages emerge gradually over time leads to them being overlooked and disregarded. However, such environmental destruction becomes very costly for everyone over the years."

"The Cost of Damaged Human Health and Lives Lost Prematurely Cannot Be Paid in Any Way"

Prof. Dr. Mirici, stating that protection of values such as Kazdağları, which are of great importance in terms of ecological balance, is of primary importance, requested that the matter be approached with the correct perspective. Mirici conveyed the following on this matter: "When profit-loss calculations are made in operations such as mining and coal-fired thermal power plants, it is seen that the damage to human health and the inevitably increasing healthcare expenses are not calculated. Moreover, the cost of damaged human health and lives lost prematurely cannot be paid in any way. It is known that air quality is the most important cause of lung diseases. We wish to remind once more that millions of people suffer from lung diseases every year due to breathing dirty and unpurified air and lose their lives because of this. Let it not be forgotten that patients with chronic lung diseases such as COPD are the most frequent visitors to hospital emergency rooms."