The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed that an estimated 300
million children globally are exposed to toxic air through living in areas with
outdoor air contaminated in excess of six times over international pollution
guidelines, reports NaijaAgroNet.
This was contained in the latest UNICEF report tagged ‘Clear the air for
children’ which also indicated could cause serious health damage, including
harming their developing brains.
UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake told NaijaAgroNet that pollutants do not
only harm children’s developing lungs as
they could actually cross the blood-brain barrier and permanently damage their
developing brains, thus, their futures.
“Air pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths
of around 600,000 children under five every year – and it threatens the lives
and futures of millions more every day,” he added. “No society can afford to
ignore air pollution,” he said.
NaijaAgroNet
reports that these findings came a week ahead of the 22nd Conference of the
Parties (COP 22)
to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Marrakesh, Morocco, where
UNICEF is calling on world leaders to take urgent action to cut air pollution
in their countries.
Further, NaijaAgroNet
reports that using satellite imagery, the report further shows that around two
billion children live in areas where outdoor air pollution, caused by factors
such as vehicle emissions, heavy use of fossil fuels, dust and burning of
waste, exceeds minimum air quality guidelines set by the World Health
Organization (WHO).
Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops
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