31, Oct 2018

According to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2016, India saw the highest number of deaths of children aged under five that could be tied to PM2.5 exposure, The Wire reported. Overall, the number of such deaths in 2016 was 60,987, with the death rate for the age group being 50.8 per 100,000. Girls were more affected than boys: 32,889 girls died compared to 28,097 boys. In age group of five to 14 years, the number of deaths was 4,360 is 2016. Totalling the deaths in both age groups, more than one lakh children died in India because of ambient and household pollution of PM2.5. In its announcement of the report, WHO highlighted that daily, about 93% of children globally under age 15, or 1.8 billion children, “breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk.” WHO said it has estimated that, in 2016, 600,000 children died due to acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air. The complete report, titled ‘Air Pollution and Child Health: Prescribing clean air’, may be read here.