As indicated by a plethora of literature, the emerging issue of air pollution especially in urban areas has caused increased risk rates associated with respiratory, cardiovascular, and neural diseases among human beings. However, being a vulnerable group, which is most sensitive to the air pollution impacts, the infants and newborn children are displaying increased disease rates as compared to adults.
Among the various diseases that directly threaten the survival of children, the incidences of low birth weights are most closely linked to the exposure to air pollutants. Moreover, the increased premature birth rates are also linked with air pollution among children in urban settings. It has been identified in a study that the children who are premature in their birth are not fully developed infants therefore their body capacities are comparatively less than other newborn children (Kim et al., 2011). When such babies are exposed to air pollutants, they have little to no capacity to counter the impact. Therefore, these babies are more at threat and display high incidence rates of health problems such as diarrheal diseases, lower-respiratory infections, jaundice, brain inflammation and damage, and blood disorders. The occurrence of these diseases in the premature and low birth weight children are found to cause death among these children within the first month of their lives. So far, approximately 1.8 million children are estimated to die each year worldwide due to this reason (Adaji et al.,2019).
It has been studied that the higher risk if health complications among children are directly related to the premature birth and the weight of the children. In the first place, the infants in the womb of an exposed mother are less likely to survive in the pregnancy period. Even if they do, they are more at risk to infectious diseases and chronic impacts throughout their lives. It has been studied that only in 2019, around 476,000 children died in their first months due to high exposure of air pollution.
According to the wealth of literature on infants’ vulnerability to air pollution, several risk factors are identified that contribute to premature birth and low birth weight. One study concluded that the mother’s who carry twins or triplets along with health conditions such as tobacco use, malnutrition, and chronic health conditions are more susceptible of giving birth before time and producing infants with low weight. Some socio-demographic factors are also identified due to which the exposure of a mother to air pollution is increased. In this regard, the women in developing countries where the socio-demographic development is low, the risk of adverse birth outcomes is high.
Figure 1: Children’s deaths within first month of their birth due to household air pollution in 2019 (Source: State of Global air 2020)
Among other factors, the exposure of born children to the indoor air pollution is also highly linked with mortality rate among children. It has been estimated that of all the neonatal deaths due to air pollution worldwide, 64% are due to household pollution. Similarly, it has been found that in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where the solid fuels are common for cooking, the babies display high rates and numbers of death. In sub-Saharan Africa, of 236,000 deaths that occurred among children within first month of their birth, 80% are attributed to indoor air pollution whereas in South Asia, of 186,000 deaths of children, 50% are due to household air pollution (Steenland et al., 2018).
References
Adaji, E. E., Ekezie, W., Clifford, M., & Phalkey, R. (2019). Understanding the effect of indoor air pollution on pneumonia in children under 5 in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review of evidence. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 26(4), 3208-3225.
Kim, K. H., Jahan, S. A., & Kabir, E. (2011). A review of diseases associated with household air pollution due to the use of biomass fuels. Journal of hazardous materials, 192(2), 425-431.
Steenland, K., Pillarisetti, A., Kirby, M., Peel, J., Clark, M., Checkley, W., … & Clasen, T. (2018). Modeling the potential health benefits of lower household air pollution after a hypothetical liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cookstove intervention. Environment international, 111, 71-79.
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