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Health policy air pollution and child health
  1. Martina Larsson1,
  2. Abigail Whitehouse1,2
  1. 1Paediatric Respiratory Department, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, England, UK
  2. 2Centre for Genomics and Child Health, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Abigail Whitehouse; a.whitehouse{at}qmul.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2025-328560

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    Outdoor air pollution negatively impacts child health. Existing evidence highlights the numerous detrimental impacts of poor air quality on population health and the economy. At least 4.5 million children in the UK are growing up in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution.1 In London in 2020, a 9-year-old Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah’s death certificate was the first in the world to list ‘air pollution’ as a cause of her death. Children are among the most vulnerable to be impacted by air pollution, and policies to tackle air pollution must be child-centred with an equitable focus to reduce health inequities in those most at risk. In England, deprived areas and areas with a higher proportion of people from minority ethnic backgrounds have higher concentrations of air pollutants.2 Poor air quality has a significant economic cost. Outdoor air pollution was estimated to cost the National Health Service (NHS) and social care £42 million in 2017, and by 2030 this cost is predicted to reach billions cumulatively.3 Public health policy sets the national agenda for tackling complex and wicked problems like outdoor air pollution. These policies significantly impact both the daily and working lives of paediatricians, in addition to that of the public.

    The coroner’s report following the death of Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah identified three key areas to prevent future deaths secondary to air pollution. The first is a need for a legally binding target for air pollutant levels in line with the 2021 WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines. The current national air pollutant target concentration for 2040 is set at 10 µg/m³, twice that which the …

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    Footnotes

    • X @Dr_abi_w

    • Contributors ML devised and wrote the original manuscript. AW and ML reviewed and revised the final version.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.