3 million children die from pollution each year: UN

Hyderabad: A study conducted by United Nations Environment claims that women and children are more vulnerable to air pollution than men are.

The data issued by the UN Environment in connection with their theme for World Environmental Day, i.e air pollution, has revealed that although the global mortality rate has dropped significantly since 1970, three million children are still dying every year of pollution-induced ailments.

“Air pollution has been affecting the neurodevelopment of children around the world — primarily because children breathe faster and are closer to the ground, thereby increasing their likelihood of inhaling pollutants in larger quantities and at a faster pace — and has been found to be responsible for almost 10 percent deaths in children under 5,” the report claims.

According to the reports submitted by various organisations, including WHO, fine particles like PM 10 and even PM 2.5 are very harmful to the human body, especially small children. Continuous exposure to high levels of these particles on a daily basis increases the risk of asthma, chronic or recurring respiratory conditions, and impaired lung function, which further affects the development of children’s brains.

About more women falling prey to air pollution, Dr Hari Prasad said, “The traditional Indian manner of cooking using fossil fuels, coal, and cow dung, happens to be a major reason for the increased incidence of air pollution related diseases in women.”  

“While most adults would previously report with smoking or allergy-related asthma, we have observed a rise in the number of children reporting with pollution-induced asthma in recent years,” Dr Hari told this newspaper.

Infants who spend most of their time indoors are certainly at a lesser risk of the consequences of outdoor air pollution. However, exposure to the gases released by electrical appliances, cooking fuels, and cosmetics, can still affect them quite severely. “Household air pollution (from cooking) and ambient (outdoor) air pollution together cause more than 50 percent of acute lower respiratory infections in children under 5 years of age in low and middle-income countries,” a WHO study claimed.

Household air pollution in India, however, has predominantly been found to affect more women than men as millions of women still cook using cow dung and firewood, thereby exposing themselves to high concentrations of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases.