Air pollution poses a serious environmental risk to children’s health. UN News reports with reference to UNICEF.
In 2019, more than 5,800 children and adolescents died from causes related to air pollution in 52 countries in Europe and Central Asia.
An even greater number of children and adolescents faced dangerous health and developmental consequences of air pollution, including non-fatal illnesses, hospitalizations and disabilities.
According to UNICEF, nearly 85 percent of people in the Europe and Central Asia region under the age of 20, who died in 2019 from air pollution-related causes, were under 12 months old. These deaths were preventable.
Due to their physical characteristics, children are more exposed to air pollution than adults because they breathe twice as fast as adults, absorbing more pollutants, and are closer to the ground where pollutants accumulate.
Children are physiologically more vulnerable to air pollution than adults because their brains, lungs, and other organs are not yet sufficiently developed and their defense mechanisms against toxic pollutants do not work as they do in adults. Prolonged exposure to toxic pollutants leads to impaired growth and development of their organs, affects brain development in the crucial early years of life, with long-term consequences for physical and mental development.
Scientific evidence shows that air pollution contributes to adverse birth outcomes, including premature birth and low birth weight, infant mortality, impaired lung function, the development of painful conditions and diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and an increased risk of neurological disorders. Other respiratory diseases associated with air pollution include upper respiratory tract infections, otitis media and allergic diseases.
Recent reports indicate that more than 83 percent of children in the 50 states in the region are exposed to air pollution. Poor health is especially common for young children in the first 1,000 days of life, as well as the elderly.
«Air pollution represents a public health crisis. There is a strong correlation between exposure to polluted air at an early age and health outcomes later in life. Air pollution from PM2.5 and PM10 particles in Europe and Central Asia is mainly caused by the use of fossil fuels for domestic, commercial and institutional purposes. Particularly detrimental to children’s health is the use of hard coal,» the statement says.
