UNIPOL: WORLD"S FIRST ANTI-AIR POLLUTION POLICE FORCE


In Abidjan, the commercial and cultural capital of the West African nation of Cote d'Ivoire, the potent odor of car exhaust permeates just about everything. Eighty percent of the country's vehicles are second-hand -- discarded cars shipped in from Western countries.
These are all cars that will leave u with lung cancer as they passed by.
Last year doctors began linking air pollution to rising rates of asthma in Abidjan for the first time. Due to the increase in air pollution related lung disease the worlds first "green cops" are out in the streets of Abidjan- a new anti-pollution police force in Abidjan called UNIPOL (l'Unite de Police Anti-Pollution). Currently resources are limiting with a mere nine officers and one patrol car, they monitor an expansive city of more than 3 million people.

Unfortunately Cote d'Ivoire -- which recently joined a World Bank list of the world's poorest and most heavily indebted nations -- relies on a significant amount of money from the business of importing used cars. It will take some time for "green cops" to fully ecompass the entire country but it is a stepping-stone towards a sustainable future.