Air Pollution Killed 1 Lakh Children in India in 2016: WHO

The “Air Pollution and Child Health” report, analysed the impact of toxic air on children’s health in 194 countries.

Air pollution is one of the leading threats to child health, accounting for almost 1 in 10 deaths in children under five years of age. Image used for representation. 

(Photo: FIT)

According to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday, 29 October, India – in 2016 – recorded the highest number of deaths of children under the age of five years, due to exposure to air pollution.

The report, labelled “Air Pollution and Child Health”, analysed the impact of toxic air on children’s health in 194 countries, PTI reported.

According to the WHO report, at least 1,00,000 children below five years died in India in 2016, due to complications in their health that was brought about by increased levels of outdoor and indoor air pollution. 

After India, Nigeria ranked second at 98,001 number of child deaths due to air pollution in 2016, followed by Pakistan (38,252), Democratic Republic of Congo (32,647) and Ethiopia (20,330).

While out of the 194 countries which were surveyed, India ranked the highest in recording the number of deaths of children under the age of five, due to exposure to outdoor air pollution, it ranked second after Nigeria to the number of child deaths caused due to indoor air pollution, the WHO report added.

The report slated the death rate per child ratio in India at 50.8 per 1,00,000 children. It also found that out of the number of children under five, who had passed away due to toxic air pollution in 2016, the percentage was higher among the girls.

About 32,889 girls died in 2016, compared to 28,097 boys. 

The study noted that about 98 percent of children in the same age group in low and middle-income countries, include nations like India, are exposed to PM2.5 levels, which exceeds the organisation’s annual standard of 25 micrograms per cubic metres.

PM2.5 pollutants are particulate matters with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers.

These particles are so small, that they can enter the bloodstream and go in deep into the lungs. The common diseases incurred by the children, as a result of their exposure to toxic air pollutants, were influenza and pneumonia.

It also referred to its 10 years worth of research to state that exposure to traffic-related air pollution on the roads or diesel exhausts, is associated with childhood leukaemia.

Since children at that age breathe twice the rate that adults do, they are more susceptible to inhaling greater levels of air pollutants.

The report further found a strong correlation between poverty and exposure to air pollution. According to it, children residing in low-income communities are more likely to suffer the higher effects of air pollution.

In 2016, around 4,360 deaths of children between the ages of five and fourteen years, were recorded.

(With inputs from PTI)