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Air pollution caused the premature death of nearly half a million babies in their first month of life last year, and most of the babies are in the developing world, data shows.
Exposure to pollutants in the air is also harmful to babies in the womb. It can cause premature labor or low birth weight. Both factors are associated with higher infant mortality.
Almost two-thirds of the 500,000 documented infant deaths were associated with indoor air pollution, particularly from solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and cooking animal manure.
The discovery is reported in the State of Global Air 2020 report, which examined data on deaths from around the world alongside a growing body of research linking air pollution to health problems.
Medical experts have warned for years about the impacts of dirty air on the elderly and those with poor health, but they are only beginning to understand the deadly cost of babies in the womb.
Katherine Walker, senior scientist at the Health Effects Institute, who published the report, said: “We don’t fully understand what the mechanisms are at this stage, but something is happening that is causing reductions in the baby’s growth and ultimately Birth weight. . There is an epidemiological link, which is shown in various countries in various studies. “
Babies born with low birth weight are more susceptible to childhood infections and pneumonia. The lungs of premature babies also cannot develop fully.
“They are born in a high pollution environment and are more susceptible than full-term children,” said Dan Greenbaum, president of the Health Effects Institute in the United States.
Beate Ritz, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA, (University of California, Los Angeles), who was not involved in the study, said that indoor air pollution in cities in India, Southeast Asia and Africa was comparable to that of Victorian London.
“This is not the air pollution we see in modern cities. [in the rich world] but what we had 150 years ago in London and other places, where there were coal fires inside. Indoor air pollution hasn’t been at the forefront for legislators, but it should be, ”Ritz said.
He noted that the harm to children went beyond deaths; reducing air pollution would also lessen the harm to survivors. “There is also damage to the brain and other organs from this pollution, so surviving is not enough, we need to reduce air pollution due to the impact on all these organs as well,” he said.
Some of these effects have likely existed, unnoticed, for centuries, as people have long cooked over fires indoors, an activity that causes particulate matter to be breathed in, particularly by women and children, who spend more time in home. .
However, the problem is now exacerbated by the population density of many developing cities and by outdoor air pollution from vehicles and industry. These factors mean that there is now no escape from dirty air, from morning to night, for hundreds of millions of people.
The report focuses on data from 2019, so it does not include the impacts of lockdown policies around the world in 2020. The authors said the Covid-19 pandemic would have had an impact on air quality and deaths. by air pollution, but these effects were still unclear.
Greenbaum said the likelihood of any long-term beneficial health impacts from temporary reductions in air pollution due to closed closures was small, but that the sudden removal of pollution from traffic and industry had changed the perception of many people on air quality.
“People suddenly realized what it’s like to have beautiful blue skies on a regular basis. Even if it didn’t last, it showed what was possible, “Greenbaum said.
Some studies have suggested that people exposed to air pollution could be at increased risk of death from Covid-19, but these are the first findings. Greenbaum said more work is needed to establish what difference was made by exposure to air pollution.
The scientists said there had been little sign of improvement in air pollution over the past 10 years, despite the biggest warnings about the risks of dirty air in the past five years.
At least 6.7 million deaths globally in 2019 were due to prolonged exposure to air pollution, a factor that increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer and other chronic lung diseases. Air pollution is now the fourth leading cause of death globally, just below smoking and poor diet.
The 2020 Global Air State Report is published by the Health Effects Institute, which is an independent, non-profit research organization funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency and others.
