Air pollution in Indian capital is wakeup call for whole world, UNICEF says

Air pollution currently experienced in the Indian capital, Delhi, has hit record highs over the past week, and it is a wakeup call for the world at large, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a press release on Thursday.

The UN agency also called upon all countries to pay attention this emblematic case and take decisive actions to tackle the pollution problem.

"With every breath, children in Delhi are suffering," UNICEF said, pointing to reports that air pollution in one of its neighbourhoods hit 999 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter (compared to an average of between 150-350 in January 2016).

"This is not just a challenge in Delhi but a growing one for many cities around the world with air pollution levels in other Indian cities, such as Varanasi and Lucknow, equally extreme in recent days, and over the past year, alerts in cities like London, Beijing, Mexico City, Los Angeles and Manila," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here.

"Delhi is a wake-up call to the world on air pollution," the press release said. "It is a wake-up call to all countries and cities where air pollution levels have resulted in death and illness amongst children."

"Unless decisive actions are taken to reduce air pollution, the events we are witnessing in Delhi over the past week are likely to be increasingly common," UNICEF said.

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), there is a close, quantitative relationship between exposure to high concentrations of small particulates (PM10 and PM2.5) and increased mortality or morbidity, both daily and over time. This type of pollution has health impacts even at very low concentrations and no threshold has been identified below which no damage to health is observed.

On the air pollution in Delhi, UNICEF said that an estimated 4.41 million children in the city missed three days of school, earlier this week, following a decision to close its 5,798 schools to minimize the risk for children to be exposed to the polluted air.

"Air pollution moves across borders, both national ones as well as subnational ones, and so we will need coherent government policies to address these transboundary risks," the UN agency noted.

UNICEF also called for better monitoring of air pollution at a global scale.

"When a child, a mother, a father or caregiver know how bad the air is on a real-time basis, they can begin to take actions to reduce exposure," the UN agency said, urging pregnant mothers, and others who are at especially high risk to do their best to avoid areas where air pollution is at its highest.

Public knowledge on air pollution is a key first step to tackling it, and it is key to supporting government policies to reduce the problem, the agency added. Enditem