Air pollution can affect brain development of more than 12 million infants in South Asia, a UNICEF report said Wednesday.
Around 12.2 million children under one year of age are prone to "affected brain development" due to air pollution in South-Asia, the report said.
The paper 'Danger in the Air: How air pollution can affect brain development in young children' noted that particulate air pollution can damage brain tissues and undermine cognitive development.
It shows that air pollution, like inadequate nutrition, and stimulation and exposure to violence during critical first 1,000 days of life can impact children's early childhood development by affecting their growing brains.
Satellite imagery reveals that South Asia has the largest proportion of babies, 12.2 million among the global figure of 17 million babies, living in the worst affected areas where outdoor air pollution exceeds six times the international levels, the report said.
Ultrafine pollutants enter the blood stream and travel to the brain and cause neuro-inflammation. Particles like untrafine magnetite can enter the body and cause nureodegenerative diseases, it said.
Paper quotes studies as showing that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons produced by burning of fossil fuels can damage brain areas related to children's learning and development.
"A young child's brain is especially vulnerable because it can be damaged by a smaller dosage of toxic chemicals, than that of adults. Also, children are highly vulnerable because they breathe more rapidly and their physical defences and immunities are not fully developed," the report said.
"Protecting children from air pollution is in the best interests of the Indian society -- a benefit realised in reduced health costs," Westerbeek said.
Raising awareness on the right of children to breathe clean air and hazardous impacts of air pollution on their health is an essential focus of the UNICEF's work, she added.
