WHO: toxic air endangers health
of 9 out of 10 children
 |
| WHO says the health and development of 9 out of 10 children are endangered by polluted air. |
The WHO report - “Air Pollution and Child Health –
Prescribing clean air” - was released on October 29, the eve of the first
Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in Geneva.
By Robin Gomes
Alarmed that more than 9 out of 10 children in the
world are breathing polluted air, putting “their health and
development at serious risk”, the United Nations health agency on Monday
called for concrete policy pledges from governments across the world to tackle
the grave problem of air pollution.
The World Health Organization (WHO) made the call in its
report entitled, “Air Pollution and Child Health – Prescribing
clean air,” released on October 29, the eve of its first Global
Conference on Air Pollution and Health in Geneva, October
30-November 1.
The agency noted that an estimated 600,000 children
died from acute lower respiratory infections due to polluted air in
2016.
Middle-income countries, household pollution
“The enormous toll of disease and death revealed by these
new data should result in an urgent call to action for the global community,
and especially for those in the health sector,” said the report, noting that
the impact of air pollution both inside and outside the home was worst in low
and middle-income countries.
The WHO report summarized the latest scientific knowledge on
the effect on children of air pollution, which affects about 93 percent of
children globally.
Warning that air pollution also causes symptoms ranging from
loss of intelligence to obesity and ear infections, the WHO urged parents to
try avoiding household air pollution by using less polluting fuels for cooking
and heating and not smoking but to reduce child exposure to ambient
pollution they should need to lobby politicians to clean up the
environment.
The WHO reports said large parts of Asia, Africa and
Latin America are among the worst affected.
Pregnant women
The WHO report also indicated that pregnant women were more
likely to give birth prematurely when they are exposed to
harmful air.
Their babies are also prone to be underweight and
small, it said, which also highlights how air pollution can trigger asthma and
childhood cancer, hamper neuro-development, poor lung
function, pneumonia and other types of acute lower respiratory infection.
“Polluted air is poisoning millions of children and ruining
their lives,” said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Every
child should be able to breathe clean air so they can grow and fulfil their
full potential.”
"This is inexcusable. Every child should be able to
breathe clean air so they can grow and fulfil their full potential,”
Ghebreyesus added.
“Air pollution is stunting our children’s
brains, affecting their health in more ways than we suspected,” said Dr Maria
Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social
Determinants of Health at WHO. “But there are many straightforward ways to
reduce emissions of dangerous pollutants.”
Action
As part of its call for action from the international
community, WHO is recommending a series of “straightforward” measures to reduce
the health risk from ambient fine particulate matter, or PM2.5.
These include accelerating the switch to clean cooking and
heating fuels and technologies, promoting the use of cleaner transport,
energy-efficient housing and urban planning.
WHO is also supporting low emission power generation,
cleaner, safer industrial technologies and better municipal waste management”
to reduce community air pollution, Dr Neira added.
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