The air pollution caused by diesel has a serious impact on children’s lungs, to the point that some can die.
As the yellow vests prepare to demonstrate against the increase in fuel prices, a new study published in the journal The Lancet Public Health indicates that air pollution caused by diesel has a serious impact on children’s lungs.
Asthma, lung infections, COPD
The research, which involved over 2,000 London children, indicates that the British capital’s diesel-dominated air is hampering their lung development. Concretely, this exposes these little English people to permanent respiratory problems, which they will keep throughout their lives. We are talking here about asthma, pulmonary infections or COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).
The team of scientists monitored the children’s health and their exposure to air pollutants over a period of five years. The pups most exposed to air pollution had a significantly smaller lung volume, corresponding to a loss of about 5% of their lung capacity. This has been linked to exposures to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and (NOx), both of which are found in diesel emissions.
Irreversible
These results are all the more worrying as London has implemented, since 2008, low emission zones, which limit the entry of polluting vehicles in certain areas. According to the study, the impact of these measures on the health of children living in protected areas has been very low. Therefore, we can deduce that air pollution has an irreversible impact on children’s lungs, and that these public health measures must be much more important to be medically effective.
“Despite the improvement in air quality in London, this study shows that air pollution dominated by diesel in cities harms the lung development of children, putting them at risk of early death”, summarizes Chris Griffiths, professor at Queen Mary University of London. “We are raising a generation of children who reach adulthood with reduced lung capacity. Our auto industry still does not act decisively to ensure that cities reduce their traffic,” he laments.
Force automakers to recall “all diesels”
On RTL Tuesday, November 13, the environmental MEP Yannick Jadot thus estimated that the French government should oblige car manufacturers to recall “all diesels, including diesels which have been released recently. We are bearing the brunt of the cost of the automotive transition, the cost of pollution, only to motorists. This is not normal. Car manufacturers have a major responsibility in the fact that we have cars that pollute too much and consume too much, and for the moment in France there is no nothing happened”.
In France, 40,000 premature deaths in 2012 were due to air pollution. Air pollution is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with the World Health Organization estimating more than four million deaths annually attributed to it.
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