According to a new the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF) report released to commemorate the on World Environment Day celebrated on Wednesday, 5 June states that for babies and young children, breathing particulate air pollution is extremely harmful to their health and development, as it can cause permanent damage to brain tissue and lungs.
UNICEF warns that since air pollution is not monitored in Africa to the same extent as other parts of the world, we are not only potentially underestimating the severity of the impact – we might also be underestimating its scope.
The report notes that air pollution is a growing challenge for Africa. Air pollution also impacts ecosystems – vital to livelihoods and health – as well as food crops. A recent study noted in the report estimates the economic cost of premature deaths from outdoor air pollution across Africa to be $215bn.
“Air pollution is a silent killer of children. And in Africa especially, we know the problem is severe, we just don’t know how severe,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Reducing children’s exposure to pollutants – and therefore reducing the damage to children’s health and early brain development – begins with a reliable understanding of the quality of air they are breathing in the first place.”
Deaths from outdoor air pollution in Africa have increased 57 per cent over nearly three decades, from 164,000 in 1990 to 258,000 in 2017. Without ground-level monitoring stations that reliably measure air quality, Africa’s children are increasingly at risk of unwittingly breathing air that is toxic for their health and brain development, and the ability to devise effective responses is greatly compromised.
Ultrafine pollution particles are so small they can enter the blood stream, travel to the brain, and damage the blood-brain barrier, which can cause neuro-inflammation. Other types of pollution particles, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can damage areas in the brain that are critical in helping neurons communicate, the foundation for children’s learning and development.
To understand the full extent of the problem, UNICEF urges governments to put in place permanent and high-quality ground-level monitoring stations as public goods. When combined with satellite imagery, such stations would form the backbone of a system that would help improve the reliability of less precise monitoring stations that capture variations across cities.
“A young child’s brain is especially vulnerable because it can be damaged by a smaller dosage of toxic chemicals, children breathe more rapidly, and physical defenses and immunities are not fully developed,” said Fore. “If toxic air is stunting our children’s development, it is stunting our societies’ development as well. All governments should take the necessary steps to make sure we know exactly what we are putting into the air and what it is doing to our children’s health and well-being.”
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
