URBAN AIR POLLUTION AND CHILDREN IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES

Urban air pollution in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) poses a severe risk to children's health and development, with significant burdens found in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Children are more vulnerable due to their developing bodies and higher inhalation rates per unit of body weight. Key pollution sources include inefficient biomass combustion for cooking and heating, vehicle emissions, and waste burning, with residents of informal settlements facing the highest risks. The document advocates for integrating air quality management into climate change commitments (NDCs), investing in monitoring infrastructure—including citizen science—and adopting multi-sectoral interventions that target pollution sources rather than just symptoms.

• Children are disproportionately vulnerable to air pollution because their bodies are still developing and they inhale more air per unit of body weight than adults.
• Air pollution has severe impacts on infants and children, contributing to nearly 500,000 infant deaths in their first month of life in 2019 and an estimated 237,000 excess child deaths annually from respiratory tract infections.
• Sub-Saharan Africa bears a disproportionate burden of infant mortality from air pollution, with 54% of global infant deaths from such exposure estimated to occur in the region in 2019.
• In LMICs, there is a critical lack of air quality monitoring; for instance, UNICEF estimated that only 6% of children in Africa live near reliable air quality monitoring.
• Residents of informal settlements face extreme exposure to both outdoor pollution from industrial zones and waste burning, and indoor pollution from using kerosene, charcoal, or wood in poorly ventilated homes.
• Air pollution exposure during pregnancy is linked to adverse outcomes, including fetal growth, birthweight, and an estimated 18% of global preterm births.
• Gender disparities exist in pollution exposure; in Accra, Ghana, girls' exposure to PM2.5 was estimated to be approximately 65% higher than boys' in households using charcoal, due to more time spent on domestic cooking.
• Integrating air pollution targets into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for climate change can help LMICs access climate finance and achieve local health benefits, as seen in Chile and Colombia's targets to reduce black carbon.
• Effective interventions must target the source of pollution; for example, Mongolia's 2019 ban on raw coal for heating in Ulaanbaatar led to substantially lower winter air pollution levels.

APA

West, S., Loh, M., Malley, C., & Bowyer, C. (2021). URBAN AIR POLLUTION AND CHILDREN IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/urban-air-pollution-and-children-in-low-income-countries-global-alliance-cities-4-children.pdf

Chicago

West, Sarah, Miranda Loh, Chris Malley, and Cressida Bowyer. URBAN AIR POLLUTION AND CHILDREN IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2021. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/urban-air-pollution-and-children-in-low-income-countries-global-alliance-cities-4-children.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=West |first1=Sarah |last2=Loh |first2=Miranda |last3=Malley |first3=Chris |last4=Bowyer |first4=Cressida |title=URBAN AIR POLLUTION AND CHILDREN IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2021 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/urban-air-pollution-and-children-in-low-income-countries-global-alliance-cities-4-children.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{west2021urban, author = {West, Sarah and Loh, Miranda and Malley, Chris and Bowyer, Cressida}, title = {{URBAN AIR POLLUTION AND CHILDREN IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2021}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/urban-air-pollution-and-children-in-low-income-countries-global-alliance-cities-4-children.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }