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 UNICEF called on almost 200 governments, which will meet in Morocco
from Nov. 7-18 for talks on global warming, to restrict use of
fossil fuels to give twin benefits of improved health and slower
climate change.
About 300 million children, or almost one in seven worldwide, lived
in areas where outdoor pollution was highest, defined by UNICEF as
at least six times international guidelines set by the World Health
Organization (WHO), it said.
Of the total, 220 million lived in South Asia. It identified the
regions with satellite imagery developed by NASA.
UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake said air pollution was a
"major contributing factor in the deaths of around 600,000 children
under five every year", causing illnesses such as pneumonia.
"Pollutants don't only harm children's developing lungs - they can
actually cross the blood-brain barrier and permanently damage their
developing brains - and, thus, their futures," he said in a
statement.
"Air pollution affects poor children the most," Nicholas Rees, a
UNICEF specialist on climate and economic analysis who wrote the
report, told Reuters.
Worldwide, the WHO estimates that outdoor air pollution killed 3.7
million people in 2012, including 127,000 children aged under five.
Factories, power plants and vehicles using fossil fuels, dust and
burning of waste were among sources.
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Indoor air pollution, often caused by coal- or wood-burning cooking
stoves used in homes in developing nations, killed even more people,
4.3 million, of whom 531,000 were aged under five, it said.
UNICEF called on the U.N.-led meeting in Morocco to hasten a shift
from fossil fuels to cleaner energies such as wind or solar power,
to improve children's access to health care, limit children's
exposure to pollution and to step up monitoring of the air.
(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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