Air pollution and climate change have growing impact on children’s health
Below is an excerpt from a press release from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
One New England Journal of Medicine The article reviews the evidence for the huge and growing toll on children from air pollution and fossil fuel-driven climate change. Frederica Pereira Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Cary Nadeau Protecting children’s health requires health professionals to understand the multiple hazards of climate change and air pollution on children and to use available strategies to reduce them, writes a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Fetuses, infants and children are particularly vulnerable to climate-related impacts and air pollution, the authors wrote. In addition, research shows that air pollutants and climate change can interact to affect children’s health, although further research is needed. All children are at risk, but the greatest burden falls on those who are socially and economically disadvantaged.
The article cites dozens of studies on how fossil fuel burning has a major impact on children’s physical and mental health.
