Urban Air Quality Factors that Affect Children’s Health
摘要
Air pollution is the leading environmental health risk, responsible for approximately one in eight deaths each year (6.7 million worldwide) and respiratory diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people. Children are particularly vulnerable due to their underdeveloped lungs and immune system as well as their higher air intake relative to body weight. Prolonged exposure to air pollution can lead them to adverse cardiovascular effects, hinder cognitive development, and impair brain maturation, among others. These effects are especially pronounced in urban environments, where children are exposed to a range of biotic (pollen, spores, bacteria) and abiotic (particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide) pollutants of different nature. Given the diversity of pollutants and factors that determine their concentration and dispersion, in this chapter, a new methodology based on a multidisciplinary approach is proposed. Monitorization to, wherever possible, adequately predict the evolution of environmental urban air quality is a key issue to identify the high-risk areas in cities and mitigate them. Furthermore, this methodology would collaborate in the definition of the specific proposals and solutions in areas in which the children spend a very long time such as schools and their playgrounds.