Just as Delhi is gasping for breath due to increasing air pollution, a WHO report released on Monday increased the concerns as it pointed out that everyday 98 per cent of kids globally, under the age of 15 years, breathe air that is toxic, putting them to severe health risk. Alarmingly, 14 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India, the report stated based on its study in 2016.
Air pollution is fatal too as around 600,000 children died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by dirty air during the study year, as per the report titled, “Air pollution and child health: Prescribing clean air.”
The report examines the heavy toll of both ambient (outside) and household air pollution on the health of the world’s children, particularly in low and middle-income countries including India.
The report is being launched on the eve of WHO’s first ever Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health at the first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health being held in Geneva from 29 October — 1 November to rally the world towards major commitments to fight this problem. The conference will raise awareness of this growing public health challenge and share information and tools on the health risks of air pollution and its interventions.
The WHO report also talked about the health hazards of toxic air on pregnant women. They are more likely to give birth prematurely, and have small, low birth-weight children, it said.
“In low- and middle-income countries around the world, 98% of all children under 5 are exposed to PM2.5 levels above WHO air quality guidelines. In comparison, in high-income countries, 52% of children under 5 are exposed to levels above WHO air quality guidelines,” the study says.
“Globally, 93 per cent of the world’s children under 18 years of age are exposed to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels above WHO air quality guidelines, which include the 630 million of children under 5 years of age, and 1.8 billion of children under 15 years,” the report said.
The PM2.5 (or particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres present in the air), also called “fine particulates”, can be a matter of more serious health concern than PM10 (those with a diameter of less than 10 micrometres).
PM2.5 poses greater harm as being finer, it can easily be inhaled into the respiratory tract.
The WHO report cited a case study that investigated whether exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy was associated with low birth weight in an integrated rural-urban, mother-child cohort in Tamil Nadu.
“The researchers recruited 1285 women in the first trimester of pregnancy in primary health care centres and urban health posts and followed them until the birth of their child to collect data on maternal health, prenatal care, exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and the birthweight of the child,” the study said.
The findings indicate that maternal exposure to PM2.5 should be considered with other risk factors for low birthweight in India.
The report also quoted a case-control study in India which showed a correlation between exposure to HAP from solid fuel combustion and the risk of contracting TB in children less than 5 years of age.
