Change Starts Today!
600,000 children under the age of 15 die every year from exposure to air toxins both indoors and outdoors, according to the World Health Organization in 2018.
In addition, more than 1 in 4 deaths of children under 5 years of age are attributable to unhealthy environments. Meaning, 570,000 children under 5 years die from respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, attributable to indoor and outdoor air pollution, and second-hand smoke (WHO 2018).
More brutal statistics about air pollution can be viewed below.
Just these few facts alone should make your heart hurt and urge you to take action. Children are our future and should be taken care of with high priority. They are such a vulnerable and innocent population who needs special attention and support. You are most likely to know of a child under the age of 16 right now, whether it is your kid, your niece or nephew, a friend’s child, etc. Would you want them to suffer respiratory diseases from something you could help fight against? If you are a good person, your answer is NO. No child should suffer the harmful consequences that air pollution brings. After all, children are not the main contributors of air pollution and should not be punished the most for it.
Air pollution is the release of pollutants, such as particulate matter, black carbon levels, ozone levels, and sulfur dioxide, into the atmosphere that are detrimental to human health and to the planet as a whole. We have been seeing adverse health effects continuing to rise from air pollution, greatly due to climate change. Climate change includes both global warming driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Climate change has been increasing year after year with the increase in burned fossil fuels and more vehicles on the roads, to name two factors. Targeting expansive corporations such as car manufacturers and factory owners to reduce carbon emissions is definitely needed, but we the general public can work together NOW to take small actions to work on combating climate change. It is imperative that we as a community come together to reduce climate change, or else it will only get worse as it has been for decades. Because of climate change’s wide variety of topics, we will focus only on air pollution right now.
Air pollution can affect anyone, anywhere, however it affects vulnerable populations at an increased rate. It can exacerbate children’s health to concerning levels and not only does their health get affected, but their human capital, labor productivity, and educational performance are affected as well. Therefore, air pollution compromises the respiratory systems of many children and can lead to further negative effects for them. All in all, air pollution is detrimental to human health, especially children, so it is important to focus on resolving this issue for prolonged healthy living for all.
Below is a video that further summarizes air pollution (and global warming), including its many contributors.
As I’m sure you are more eager now to make a change by understanding just how important it is to fight air pollution, here are only TWO easy actions you can partake in to reduce air pollution that are quite necessary.
1 — Drive your Vehicles Less!
A main contributor to air pollution that is so relevant in everyone’s day to day life and which is easy to reduce, is driving. A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. According to the EPA, motor vehicles collectively cause 75 percent of carbon monoxide pollution in the U.S. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) estimates that on-road vehicles cause one-third of the air pollution that produces smog in the U.S., and transportation causes 27 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. has 30 percent of the world’s automobiles, yet it contributes about half of the world’s emissions from cars (Brinson 2021). Evidence suggests that 13% of global incidence of asthma in children could be attributable to traffic-related air pollution (Tiotiu et al., 2020). A move to electric vehicles is under way and this is a big solution we need to transition to completely. However, this transition will take awhile so in the meantime if you don’t already drive electric, drive less! Cut back on unnecessary driving trips, take faster routes, use public transportation more, and ride your bike or walk to places. According to a Harvard study in 2016, biking on an average US diet had a climate impact of 65 gCO2e/passenger-km. Whereas for a typical US car, this number rose to 300 gCO2e/passenger-km (Thorpe 2016). This is a 4.6% increase in carbon emissions. Just imagine if everyone started riding their bikes instead of driving? Wow, I can already feel myself breathing the clean air. An easy visual to refer to for how to reduce air pollution is included below.
It is understandable that driving your car less might not be the easiest or most practical solution for you. We all have busy schedules, and if you are anything like my mom who is a mother of 4, you are constantly on the move, running errands all day (my mom drives an electric car btw). If being more environmentally cautious was easy, everyone would be doing it in a heartbeat. However, it is not. I can only provide the brutal truths behind driving your vehicles more, and urge you to take action!! Next time your son needs to get to soccer practice, carpool! Next time you need to check your mailbox, bike there! And next time you get in your car for the fourth time in one day, I hope you picture this baby (included below) on a respirator because he cannot breathe on his own. Infant exposure to air pollution has long-lasting effects on their lungs. Not only does lung capacity decrease for teenagers who were exposed to air pollution as infants, but they are also at much greater risk of developing asthma (The Guardian, August 24, 2020). In fact, this increased risk of asthma occurred even when air pollution levels were lower than legal limits set by the government.
2 — Reduce or Eliminate Fireplace and Wood Stove Use!
People who are exposed to toxic air pollutants at sufficient concentrations, for sufficient durations, may increase their chances of getting cancer or experiencing other serious health effects, such as reproductive problems, birth defects, and aggravated asthma (EPA 2018). Switching from an old wood stove to an EPA-certified stove reduces the amount of smoke produced when you burn wood. Smoke resulting from improperly burned wood contains many chemical substances that are considered harmful. Dangerous releases of toxic air pollutants can occur if you burn wood in fireplaces, old wood stoves, or old fireplace inserts. Even in low concentrations, particulate pollution can harm the health of children at high levels. Replace your old dirty wood stove with a cleaner and more efficient heating alternative such as gas, oil, propane, or electric heat. Make sure to burn only clean, dry, and seasoned wood that has been split and dried for at least 6 months. And burn hardwoods rather than softwoods because hardwoods are denser and burn more slowly and evenly, which produces less smoke. If it is too expensive to replace your fireplace and get a new one, no worries. You can buy fake firewood to burn. According to experts, artificial fire logs produce 50% less smoke, 85% less carbon monoxide, and 70% less particulate matter than firewood.
These two easy actions can be practiced by anyone! There is really no excuse for not being able to partake in at least one of them. I have witnessed my friend collapse after a cross country race, due to unhealthy air levels causing her asthma to spike. She was 16 at the time and rushed to the hospital and needed a ventilator to help her breathe. It was very scary and very real. My friend was lucky enough to recover, however her passion to run would soon die as she was told not to race anymore. Millions of people experience this, and unhealthy air conditions are what make it worse. Air pollution affects everyone in some way, so you might as well do your part now before it is too late. Just think of all the lives we could save by helping clean our air!
Sources:
- Brinson, L. C. (2021, April 14). How much air pollution comes from cars? HowStuffWorks. https://auto.howstuffworks.com/air-pollution-from-cars.htm#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20EPA%2C%20motor,percent%20of%20greenhouse%20gas%20emissions.
- Thorpe, D. (2016, June 20). Climate Impacts of Biking vs. Driving. The Keith Group. https://keith.seas.harvard.edu/blog/climate-impacts-biking-vs-driving
- Geneva. (2017, March 6). The cost of a polluted environment: 1.7 million child deaths a year, says WHO. The World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/06-03-2017-the-cost-of-a-polluted-environment-1-7-million-child-deaths-a-year-says-who
- EPAgov. (2018, September 27). Actions You Can Take to Reduce Air Pollution | Ground-level Ozone | New England | US EPA. United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www3.epa.gov/region1/airquality/reducepollution.html#:%7E:text=Reduce%20the%20number%20of%20trips,powered%20lawn%20and%20garden%20equipment.
- The Guardian — News and Prophecy Staff. (2020, August 31). Infants, Air Pollution, and Lung Disease. Tomorrow’s World. https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/news-and-prophecy/infants-air-pollution-and-lung-disease
- Tiotiu, A. I., Novakova, P., Nedeva, D., Chong-Neto, H. J., Novakova, S., Steiropoulos, P., & Kowal, K. (2020). Impact of Air Pollution on Asthma Outcomes. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(17), 6212. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/10.3390/ijerph17176212
