The 2018 WHO report titled Air Pollution and Child Health: Prescribing clean air, highlights the latest scientific data that links air pollution with adverse health impacts upon children as well as the significance of interventions that curb their exposure within the broader 2030 agenda of sustainable development. The report also outlines the crucial role of effective communication of risks and solutions vis-à-vis air pollution.
Certain concrete steps must be taken in order to reduce the exposure of pregnant women, children and adolescents to the globally high levels of household and ambient air pollution. The underlying motivation of the report is to inform healthcare professionals worldwide to urgently help prevent damage to children’s health due to exposure to air pollution, via individual and collective action, at the individual, community as well as policy level, both nationally and globally. Thus, the broader health sector must become more engaged in comprehensive approaches to addressing the air pollution crisis, especially by managing exposure.
As trusted sources of information and guidance in society, healthcare professionals can not only treat the ill-health caused by air pollution but also leverage their knowledge and influence to provide evidence to shape public health policy and social and behaviour change communication strategies, by advocating effective solutions of care and prevention within the communities they serve in. This can be amplified by:
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Being informed about existing and emerging impacts of air pollution on children’s health by identifying causative risk factors, related health conditions, sources of environmental exposure
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Researching, publishing and disseminating knowledge about effects, potential treatment, management and prevention
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Educating families and communities by prescribing solutions, which may be transitional and offer some incremental health benefits, in contexts where barriers exist to the adoption of clean household energy
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Providing relevant information about government and non-profit programmes/resources
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Training and engaging with colleagues/students in the fields of health and education across workplaces, local health care centres, conferences, professional associations, to widen the reach of messages about health risks and strategies
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Supporting the inclusion of children’s environmental health in school curricula in medical, nursing schools etc.
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Sharing solutions with policy/decision-makers, local governments, school boards and community leaders by accurately emphasizing upon the health burden of air pollution, conducting/monitoring health-based assessments, endorsing improved standards/policy
Exposure to air pollution is a lifelong burden of suffering and illness that can alter the trajectory of a child’s life, but it is a largely preventable crisis. Informed action by healthcare professionals can be a panacea for low-income families, wherein the means to improve the air quality in their homes, even if not awareness levels, may be limited. Market and other forces beyond their control may render clean fuels and technologies unaffordable, unavailable or inaccessible.
Outside the house, individuals and families have even lesser control over what is emitted into the air that they breathe. Individual action like use of clean stoves for cooking can mitigate household air pollution and improve the health of the whole family. However, these are not unstainable or equitable on a larger scale. The reduction of ambient air pollution requires wider action, especially at the policy level.
Air pollutants are not limited by political borders and their dispersal is governed by prevailing weather patterns. This demands regional and international cooperative approaches to achieve substantial and effective reductions in exposure. Such preventive approaches must be complementary and mutually reinforcing in scale at every level i.e. houses, clinics, health care institutions, municipalities, national governments and the global community.
In such a context, healthcare professionals can collectively push for strong action from decision-makers to protect children, the most vulnerable and voiceless citizens, who have little or no control over the air they breathe. Individual efforts and actions can cumulatively contribute to collective action by changing minds, policies and consequently, the overall quality of air, thereby eventually ensuring that children are breathing freely, devoid of the burdens of air pollution.
India Outbound
December 12, 2018
source https://indiaoutbound.org/a-childs-right-to-breathe-safe-air-part-3/
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