Beyond respiratory effects: Air pollution and the health of children and adolescents

In 2016, WHO report data revealed that air pollution (AP) contributed to around 300.000 deaths of children under five and to around 52.000 deaths of children adolescents aged between 5 and 15 years. Respiratory system is the entry for air pollutants, and therefore is the most impacted system. However, in the last two decades, scientific evidence show that the other system is affected and exposure can be associated with lasting effects later in life. Beyond the respiratory system, the development and function of the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system, and the metabolism are affected. Indeed, there is an emerging concept that exposure to AP during gestation and early childhood increases the risk of disease in adulthood. In fact, the larger number of children breathing unhealthy air live in areas more prone to have other environmental threats, such as bad housing and precarious sanitation and lower access to health services, a situation that can be characterized as a multiple jeopardy, a scenario that children and their families fundamentally rely on public policies to be protected. Thus, actions aimed to reduce children's exposure to AP extrapolate the boundaries of health policies, to incorporate the contents of human rights and dignity.