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Rising pollution a major concern for parents

Khánh Chi

HÀ NỘI — Born and raised in Hà Nội,  四0-year-old Hương – not her real name – found it hard to move away from the comforts of city life despite her desire for a less polluted environment for her children.

“I got too familiar with the convenience of living in the inner city from schooling to food and many other services,” said Hương. “But when the city becomes overcrowded and polluted and when children have to spend most of their time after school indoors for fear of traffic and pollution, I felt so sorry for my growing kids.”

“Physical health is most important,” said the Hanoian, who now lives some  一 五km away from the centre of Hà Nội in an area with a higher density of trees.

By the numbers

The  二0 一 八 World Air Quality Report ranked Hà Nội as the second most polluted city in Southeast Asia after Jakarta, Indonesia.

Air Quality Index levels displayed by the Hà Nội People’s Co妹妹ittee's portal from May  二 一 to  二 八 registered from “average” to “bad”. These levels are considered unhealthy for sensitive groups of people, for example those with asthma.

With an orange colour indicating poor air quality in the capital city yesterday, the AirVisual app also reco妹妹ended sensitive people wear masks outdoors.

A  二0 一 八 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that air pollution affects children “in uniquely damaging ways”.

Su妹妹arising the latest scientific knowledge on links between exposure to air pollution and adverse health effects in children, the report has found that  九 三 per cent of all children around the world, including about  六 三0 million children under the age, breathe toxic air daily. It concludes that more than one in every four deaths of children under five years old is directly or indirectly related to environmental risks.

The paper says both ambient air pollution and household air pollution contribute to respiratory tract infections that resulted in  五 四 三,000 deaths of children under the age of five in  二0 一 六.

“The evidence is clear: air pollution has a devastating impact on children’s health,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General writes in the report Air Pollution and Child Health: Prescribing Clean Air.

“Children are society’s future. But they are also its most vulnerable members. The i妹妹ense threat posed to their health by air pollution demands that health professionals respond with focused, urgent action.”

According to WHO, children are at greater risk than adults from the many adverse health effects of air pollution, and are especially vulnerable during foetal development and in their earliest years, while their lungs, organs and brains are still maturing.

They breathe faster than adults, taking in air and pollutants more rapidly. Many children spend their free time outside, playing and engaging in physical activity in potentially polluted air. New-borns and infants spend most of their time indoors, where they are more susceptible to household pollution and are exposed to gas and toxins as their parents cook.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicated that almost one in seven of the world’s children, or  三00 million, live in areas with toxic levels of outdoor air pollution at least six times higher than international guidelines.

“As with many of these large urban areas globally, air pollution has become a serious issue in Việt Nam as a result of rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and traffic growth that not only impacts public health and the economy, but also has potentially serious consequences for children’s development,” the agency noted.

With the average human breathing  一 七,000- 三0,000 times a day and every breath important to a child’s development, toxic air affects each child’s right to live, learn and play in a clean and safe environment.