Resumen del documento publicado por la Organización Mundial de la Salud:
Few things are as precious as our children’s health. Protecting children’s health and environment is an essential objective for the health policies of any modern society, and is also crucial to sustainable development. European Member States of WHO made clear their commitment to this issue at the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, held in Budapest in June 2004, when they adopted the Budapest Declaration and the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe. Reducing the adverse effects of air pollution on children’s health is one of the four priority goals on which Member States have pledged to take action.
This presents policy-makers and researchers with an extraordinary challenge. To be effective, measures must be based on accumulated evidence from research and must focus on the factors that affect children’s health. However, the complexity of exposure patterns, changes in the vulnerability of children at various stages of prenatal and postnatal development, and practical limitations to research mean that understanding of the impacts of air pollution on children’s health is still incomplete. Research to reduce this gap in knowledge is conducted by various scientific disciplines in various countries, and is not often readily accessible to policy-makers.
One of WHO’s role is to evaluate the accumulated scientific evidence and prepare a synthesis on which Member States can base their policies. This monograph is one of the products of the WHO project entitled “Systematic assessment of health aspects of air pollution in Europe”, which underpins the development of
the Clean Air for Europe programme of the European Commission.1 The evaluation of the effects of air pollution on children’s health and development was prepared by a group of leading scientists active in epidemiology, toxicology and public health in Europe and North America. We are grateful for their contributions and their involvement in this process which allowed clear conclusions to emerge from the complex evidence spread across hundreds of studies and research reports produced worldwide each year. Although the evaluation indicates that numerous issues require further research, it also points to the sound evidence that already exists indicating a causal link between air pollution and children’s health. Air pollution affects children as early as the prenatal period, affecting lung development and increasing the risk of infant death. Air pollutants at concentrations common in European cities can aggravate respiratory infections, which are a primary cause of morbidity and death in young children. Moreover, traffic-related air pollution affects lung growth rates. These conclusions provide strong arguments for policy-makers, legislators, administrators and all citizens to reduce air pollution and prevent its harmful influence on children’s health and development.Roberto Bertollini, MD, MPH
Director
Special Programme on Health and Environment
WHO Regional Office for Europe