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A major study found that pollution by diesel vehicles slows the growth of children's lungs, leaving them damaged for life.
This study of more than 2,000 schoolchildren in London is the first of its kind in a city where diesel pollution is an important factor and has consequences for cities around the world. He also showed that the charges to deter polluting trucks from entering the city somewhat reduced air pollution, but not the damage to children 's lungs.
The World Health Organization clbadifies air pollution, causing 7 million premature deaths each year. global emergency of public health. Ninety percent of the world's children breathe an unhealthy air. Growing children are particularly vulnerable to toxic air, and previous research has badociated with underweight at birth, childhood death, obesity and death. mental health problems.
Most urban areas in the United Kingdom experience illicit levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and the government has suffered three legal failures in the face of the inadequacy of his plans. The latest government action plan, described as "pitiful" by lawyers specializing in environmental law, revealed that the air pollution was even worse than what the l? we feared before.
"We are raising a generation of children with insufficient respiratory capacity," said Professor Chris Griffiths of Queen Mary University. from London, who led the research team. "This reflects an auto industry that has deceived the consumer and the central government, which continues not to act decisively to ensure that towns and cities cut traffic. The public longs for better air quality and he is right.
The study published in the Lancet Public Health revealed that children's lung capacity had been reduced by about 5% when NO 2 pollution was above levels legal. Pulmonary capacity peaks at age 18 and then declines, Griffiths said. "If your lungs are already smaller than they should at the beginning of adult life, their risk of premature mortality will increase over time," he said. 19659002] The researchers stated that physicians should consider advising parents of children with lung problems to avoid living in highly polluted areas or to limit their exposure.
"This new study reveals the terrible legacy of the inaction of successive governments on illegal levels of air pollution," said Andrea Lee, of the environmental law firm, ClientEarth. A new stricter and stricter zone (ULEZ), which will extend the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) tax on polluting vehicles for cars, will begin in London in April 2019, but Lee said: also impose at the national level. level. "
" We need the ministers to implement emergency measures to combat pollution around schools and nurseries and finance the transition to cleaner means of transport, so as not to wash oneself the hands of the problem and leave it to the local administration to solve the problem, "she said.
Samantha Walker, of Asthma UK, said:" It is disappointing that the LEZ in London has not helped to improve the lung capacity of children and shows that a fragmented approach to reducing air pollution does not work. "
Research tested lung capacity of children aged 8 to 9 from 28 primary schools in East London between 2009 and 2014. It started right after the start of the charges in the LEZ and continued after hardening rules in 2012. Air pollution has been reduced from However, at the end of the study, the annual average was still around 70 μg / m3, well above the legal limit of 40 μg / m3.
Regarding growth retardation of lung growth and symptoms of asthma Griffiths said: "It is disappointing not to notice impact." But he said that it was essential to evaluate public health policies in order to test their effectiveness, and that this work served as the basis for the design of the strictest ULEZ.
The results of the study would apply to many cities, Griffiths said: "The air quality in London is bad, but so are other British and European cities, and sure in India and China, it's notoriously bad. "[19659016] The Guardian revealed in 2017 that hundreds of thousands of children were exposed to illegal levels of air pollution by vehicles diesel in schools and crèches in England and Wales, the poorest neighborhoods being the most seriously affected.
The new research has "a lot of notable strength," including detailed measurements of air pollution and high-quality data on children's respiratory health, according to a commentary in Lancet Public Health by Hanna Boogaard and Annemoon van Erp, at the Health Effects Institute in Boston, USA.
noted that it was not possible to include control groups in the study and that reductions in NO 2 were quite low, which made it more difficult to establish a link between air pollution and stunted lungs. Nevertheless, a statistically significant link has been shown. California evidence suggests it is a causal link, as the damage to children's lungs decreased as air quality improved between 1994 and 2011.
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