SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the parents-also-breathe-that-air dept.
Toxic air puts 17 million babies' brains and lungs at risk: UNICEF
About 17 million babies worldwide live in areas where outdoor air pollution is six times the recommended limit, and their brain development is at risk, the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
The majority of these babies – more than 12 million – are in South Asia, it said, in a study of children under one-year-old, using satellite imagery to identify worst-affected regions.
"Not only do pollutants harm babies' developing lungs – they can permanently damage their developing brains – and, thus, their futures," said UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake.
The links between air pollution and dain bramage are not yet conclusive, according to the report's author.
UNICEF press release. Danger in the air (PDF).
Related: Air Quality Unsafe for 90% of People In Urban Centres
80 Percent of World's City Dwellers Breathing Bad Air: UN
Study Links Pregnant Women's Exposure to Air Pollution to Shorter Telomeres in Babies
Lancet Report Says Pollution Caused 9 Million Premature Deaths in 2015
Air Pollution Linked to Osteoporosis and Bone Fractures
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:42AM (4 children)
A *billion* adults breath highly poisonous air every day - air containing known carcinogens and other poisons - that's way more concentrated and toxic than what these babies are breathing. And they *chose* to do so, even though the packs sometimes have horrible medical pictures on the boxes as a warning. A *billion* adults. And the world still keeps turning.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:15AM (1 child)
I can't tell whether you're seriously trying to minimize the issue of children's health.
Just in case: the adults *choose* to smoke.
The kids don't choose where they are born, and they have no control over their environment.
Their parents generally have no control over said environment either.
In fact, by growing stupid children, the respective societies are ensuring that stupid adults who reproduce in poor environments (because they're stupid and have unprotected sex) will exist in the future.
I personally find that wrong (and apparently UNICEF thinks it's wrong as well).
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @12:05PM
Their parents do have control over their own penis and vagina. Whose problem it is when they choose not to use protection?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:34AM
And I see whole nations drowning into their own fat Phil. But you don't seem to think of them at all!!1!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @12:00PM
Very few of those adults have their cigarettes in their mouth every few seconds around the clock. Even the chainsmokers stop when they're sleeping. But air quality in, for example, some major Chinese cities will attack your lungs without pause. That's considerably worse.
This has always been the driver for my care for environmental concerns. Global warming doesn't matter to me. But I have two siblings and two kids that are asthmatic, and three of the four have been hospitalized for asthma attacks at least once. I'd like to see more switches to solar, wind, tidal, and (yes) nuclear power for their sake.