Global Health Institute

The  United Nations Population Division estimates that the population of sub-Saharan Africa will quadruple by the end of the century. That is, the population will go from its mid-2018 level of 1.05 billion people to 4 billion people by 2100. While this estimate is contingent on the pace of the decrease of high fertility levels, this type of rapid population growth raises concerns about how countries might prepare and address the long-lasting and economic impacts of the rising demographic pressure. For example, with a population of 196 million people and a total fertility rate of 5.5 children per woman, Nigeria will more than double its population by mid-2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau, making it the third largest country in the world, after India and China.

Last spring I took a course titled, Environmental Law, Technology, and Justice which examined how environmental laws in the United States were originally created to protect public health. I learned that while the federal government does have measures in place to regulate outdoor air pollution, there is little government oversight on indoor air pollution. In fact, indoor air pollution has always often been ignored and is an invisible issue when it comes to promoting public health.