How are children affected by air pollution?

How are children affected by air
pollution?

Kimberlee Kidder

I have always wanted to help children, for a long time I thought I wanted to be a pediatrician so I could do just that. Over the past year or so I realize being a doctor isn’t for me but I still have a passion to help children. When first trying to come up with a topic, I thought I would just find out what air pollution did to the human body but as I began researching that I found out that “Children, especially those under 8 years of age, are at greater risk from outdoor air pollution due to lung development and function.” (Tumer-Henson) So I decided to use my passion to help children drive the research.

Before I began researching the topic I had only a little bit of back knowledge on it. I knew asthma in children and adults worsened from exposure to smoke. I only knew about a hand full of air pollutants like ozone and carbon dioxide, but I felt like there had to be much more information on the subject. I wanted to know what kinds of things are labeled air pollutants? And how they harmed children’s bodies?

As I began researching, I found out that asthma isn’t the only disease affected by air pollution. According to David Bates “Air pollutants have been documented to be associated with a wide variety of adverse health impacts in children. These include increases in mortality in very severe episodes; an increased risk of perineonatal mortality in regions of higher pollution, and an increased general rate of mortality in children; increased acute respiratory disease morbidity; aggravation of asthma, as shown by increased hospital emergency visits or admissions as well as in longitudinal panel studies; increased prevalence of respiratory symptoms in children, and infectious episodes of longer duration; lowered lung function in children when pollutants increase.” I never expected there would be so many ways a child could be affected by air pollution. I also found out there are tons of different kinds of pollutants that can cause these issues in children. Ozone, nitrogen dioxide, lead and sulfur dioxide are the main pollutants that are harming children. (Tumer-Henson)

After finding out how air pollution is affecting children, I wanted to know: Where are the pollutants coming from? And how do we help stop or prevent further pollution? What can be done to help stop
or prevent it? Most people know their car exhaust has air pollutants in it but they aren’t going to stop driving their cars to work and take the bus just because “the main source of CO (carbon monoxide) is motor vehicle exhaust” (Tumer-Henson). However I think if people know by cutting back on the amount they drive their car could help the pollution of the air maybe some would, I know I will.

I don’t think the world can change overnight and stop releases pollutants into the air but like I found out in Henson’s article “Although the limits are set for the entire country, the law allows individual states to set stronger standards” and “during any review process, public comment is encouraged.” I for one never knew that. I bet there are other people out there that don’t know that either. I think part of the problem is people haven’t been educated in the ways children are affected by air pollution. Small changes now can help save children from having to suffer from asthma, other respiratory problems and in some cases death. The children of today are our future. We need them healthy and safe so they can make a difference later in their live.

Work cited

Tumer-Henson, Anne, Kannika Ruangdej, Wiparat Suwanwaiphatthana. “Outdoor Air
Pollution and Children’s Health” Pediatric Nursing 36 (2010)

Bates, David. “The Effects of Air Pollution on Children” Environmental Health Perspectives 103 (1995)