The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) disclosed that air pollution has become a serious threat to the health of children around the globe.
The Agency made this report in a statement on its official website with the sole priority of creating awareness of the dangers and impacts of air pollution on the well-being of young people.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), air pollution contributes to 1,000 newborn deaths daily. It appears to be one of the biggest environmental risks to children globally.
Also, the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2019, gave a statistical computation that 99% of the world’s population was living in places where the WHO air quality guidelines were not met. Also, WHO also identified that ambient (outdoor) air pollution is estimated to have caused 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019.
WHO estimates that in 2019, some 37% of outdoor air pollution-related premature deaths were due to ischaemic heart disease and stroke, 18% and 23% of deaths were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acute lower respiratory infections respectively, and 11% of deaths were due to cancer within the respiratory tract.
Air pollution as indicated by Wikipedia, is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances called pollutants in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings or cause damage to the climate or materials.
This may be caused by fumes from Vehicles and pollutants found in factory wastes, power plants, construction sites, industrial facilities, and forest fires to mention a few. Also, air pollution might cause smog, making it difficult to breathe or even see things as near as 100 feet.
Air pollution appears to be one of the greatest environmental risks to health with a yearning need to guarantee healthy air for infants and children.
It is undoubtedly a fact that children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution due to their immature immune systems which are quite vulnerable to fight against certain bacteria and infections that are prone to be contracted from polluted air.
The imminent implication of air pollution on children’s health can be enormous. When exposed to air pollution, they might begin to develop symptoms which might include; coughing, tiredness, difficulty in breathing, respiratory diseases, cancers, lifelong health challenges, heart diseases, and even slowness in brain development, hereby, giving rise to children’s mortality rate.
However, in other to create healthy air for young ones, it is an obligation that people should take an intentional step towards reducing air pollution within and outside the home.
Hence, a cautious attempt to reduce the level of air pollution in the nation will drastically improve health; and educate for policy change for a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment to thrive for children and young people.
In a bid to curb air pollution, the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) advises the reduction in the consumption of animal skin by its residents in a bid to improve the air quality in the state.
The General Manager of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Babatunde Ajayi, during an interview with PUNCH, indicated that the burning of cow skin popularly known as “Ponmo” is attributed to the poor air quality in the state.
“So, if you like ponmo, you are causing a major problem to the air quality of Lagos”, He said.
He stated that carbon emissions are released into the air in the process of burning which is very harmful to the environment, ecosystem, and to humans as well, most especially children.
Ajayi urged homeowners to plant trees to absorb the carbon emitted into the environment and ensure that the public is restrained from every activity that would reduce air quality in the environment.
