Some 500 million children in East Asia and the Pacific live with unhealthy levels of air pollution, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today.
Geneva.- Ninety-one percent of them live in territories where ozone exceeds the recommended levels, which can seriously affect the health of children, their opportunities to receive education, and even the economy of those countries, the organization judged.
According to the study, more than 100 deaths per day of children under five years of age are related to toxic air in the area under analysis.
As Thailand’s capital Bangkok grapples with unhealthy levels of air pollution, causing school closures and widespread health concerns, UNICEF’s new report sheds light on the devastating impact and urges action, the UN office in Geneva said in a statement.
According to the source, more than half of all deaths in children aged zero to five are linked to poor air quality in homes, as families need to use solid fuels for cooking and heating.
Meanwhile, 325 million children live in nations where average annual levels of fine particulate matter in the air, smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM 2.5), are more than five times higher than the UN health agency’s reference rates, the report said.
Much of the PM 2.5 comes from burning fossil fuels, biomass, and agricultural waste, which generate greenhouse gases that drive climate change.
In addition, 373 million children live in places with unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide, a gas produced by vehicles, factories, and power plants, which aggravates asthma and other respiratory conditions, the diagnosis added.
Over time, pollution can silently feed chronic pathologies such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, which overloads already saturated health systems, increases costs, and disrupts learning and productivity, the United Nations body reasoned.
Other consequences, it added, are school absenteeism due to illness, difficulties in brain development, and the risk of school closures. This limits the potential of children while parents and caregivers of those afflicted, lose income.
According to estimates by the World Bank, in 2019 air pollution caused premature deaths and diseases that cost East Asia and the Pacific 9.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). That amount is equivalent to more than 2.5 billion dollars, the report recalled. (PL)
