While all children are vulnerable to air pollution, the youngest children are most at risk.
New UNICEF analysis focusing on very young children finds that almost 17 million babies (children under the age of one) live in some of the most severely affected regions of the world, where outdoor air pollution is at least six times higher than international limits. The majority of these babies – approximately 12 million – live in South Asia.
Air pollution is associated with some of the biggest killers of children, such as pneumonia, which is responsible for the deaths of 920,000 children under 5 years of age every year.
Air pollution is also linked with asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory infections and diseases, which can be debilitating, force children to miss school, and even cause long-lasting damage to their health and wellbeing.
These effects are well established. But a growing body of scientific research points to a potential new risk that air pollution poses to children’s lives and futures: its impact on their developing brains. This should concern us all.
Read the entire survey (PDF, 930 KB)
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